Gartner Research Director

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.

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.

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.

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.

AT&T and T-Mobile announced major upgrades to their 3G networks Tuesday that eventually should help both carriers overcome problems arising from heavy data demands by smartphone subscribers.

AT&T said it has completed the deployment of software upgrades to all its 3G cell-tower sites as the first step in its rollout of High-Speed Packet Access 7.2 (HSPA+) technology.

In an address at a USB conference in New York Wednesday, AT&T executive Ralph de la Vega told investors that the performance of the wireless provider's 3G network is being strained by the heavy data demands of a relatively small number of smartphone users. Just three percent of all AT&T network users are consuming 40 percent of the carrier's capacity, he said.

During a briefing before financial analysts Thursday, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs briefly demonstrated the world's first smartbook, which is based on the company's Snapdragon microprocessor. Though the new device from Lenovo will not formally debut until the Winter CES show in January, Jacobs said it's already slated to run on AT&T's wireless network in the United States.

With the launch of its new Droid smartphone at Verizon Wireless stores Friday, Motorola finally appears poised to recover from a three-year slide during which its mobile handset shipments fell from 22.5 percent to a 5.4 percent share of the global market, according to iSuppli. Verizon is looking for Droid to help overcome the advantages that AT&T has long enjoyed from its exclusive iPhone deal with Apple.

Just one day after Finnish phone maker Nokia filed a patent lawsuit against Apple, observers are saying the suit is a desperate attempt by Nokia to boost its own smartphone sales. Nokia alleges Cupertino, Calf.-based Apple is infringing on 10 different Nokia patents with its iPhone.