Carolina Milanesi

Analysts at several research firms are predicting explosive growth for mobile-app sales in the years ahead. A new report commissioned by cross-platform app provider Getjar, for example, forecasts worldwide revenue from mobile applications could reach $17.5 billion by the end of next year -- up from $4.1 billion in 2009.

Yankee Group forecasts that mobile-app sales in the United States alone will generate nearly $1.6 billion in revenue this year -- more than double the amount the research firm forecast just six months ago.

Japanese electronics giant Sony has been busy developing new handheld devices in an effort to better compete in the mobile market. Under way is a suite of new devices, including a PlayStation game-playing phone.

For decades Sony has kept its focus on consumer electronics. When the company wanted to compete in the mobile-phone market, it formed a joint venture with Ericsson. Now Sony is expanding its presence in the smartphone and portable-device market.

Having the latest and greatest Windows phones will no longer matter once Microsoft releases its Windows Phone 7 Series. Mobile-phone users running the latest Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, made available in October, will have incremental upgrades but will need a new phone if they want to use the software giant's Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system.

Mobile-phone users with the latest Windows Mobile phones do not have the hardware needed to run the newest mobile operating system, according to Microsoft's Mobile Communication Business.

Mobile-phone sales worldwide headed up at the end of last year, according to a new report from industry research firm Gartner. Sales in the fourth quarter posted a 8.3 percent increase compared to a year ago, although overall 2009 sales dropped 0.9 percent.

Gartner said the drivers pushing up sales are smartphones and low-end devices. Smartphone sales, said Gartner Research Director Carolina Milanesi, "continued their strong growth in the fourth quarter of 2009," up 41.1 percent over 2008 to 53.8 million units. For all of 2009, smartphone sales were up 23.8 percent.

Verizon Wireless said Wednesday that it will launch another Android-based smartphone from Motorola next month. The Motorola Devour will be the first phone on Verizon's national network to feature MOTOBLUR -- an application and service suite that provides users with dynamically pushed Internet content via a unique user interface.

Mozilla has released a mobile version of its Firefox browser for users of Nokia's N900 smartphone, which runs the handset maker's high-end Maemo operating system. Built on the same engine as Firefox 3.6 for PCs, the new mobile browser is currently available for download in more than 30 languages, with support for more smartphone platforms and languages on the way, the developers said.

Nokia unveiled a free version of its Ovi Maps navigation software Thursday that provides turn-by-turn navigation on the company's smartphones. Analysts expect the move will have a major impact on the mobile-communications and personal-navigation industries, and could potentially be more disruptive than Google's navigation offering.

A California-based developer is hoping to cash in on the most expensive application on Apple's App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch. Former law student Michael Gharray created BarMax, a $999.99 application to help law students study for exams while on the go, according to published reports.

Currently the most expensive application for the iPhone, BarMax is a study guide for the California bar exam. The largest app to hit the App Store at 1GB features lectures, outlines and exam questions from past bar exams.

LG Electronics said Wednesday that it has set a goal of selling 140 million cell phones in 2010. The South Korea-based handset maker also revealed that it plans to become one of the top two mobile-device manufacturers in the world by 2012.

To help boost unit sales, LG will focus on the lucrative smartphone market. Hopes are especially high for Android-based phones, which are expected to make up more than half of LG's upcoming smartphone releases, the company said.

For months, mobile-phone users have heard rumors that Windows Mobile 7 might be delayed. However, Microsoft's mobile operating system may be in the hands of users sooner than expected.

Industry observers expect the software giant to introduce the updated platform next month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which is where the company launched its latest version, Windows Mobile 6.5.