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Smartphone shipments were up 71 percent in 2010 from the previous year, says a new tally, which estimates 302 million smartphones shipped last year.

Google Android's success since its launch is expected to continue, according to ABI Research.

Game console and portable game player shipments in 2010 declined from 2009 (down roughly 3 percent for consoles and 30 percent for portable game players).

Some declines in game consoles can also be attributed to the maturity of current products.

Samsung held the largest market share of all flat-panel TVs (including LCD, LED and plasma) with nearly 20 percent in the first three quarters of 2010.

Complete figures for 4Q-2010 have not yet been finalized.

As smartphones and app downloads redefine the end-user mobile experience mobile carriers are facing a mobile data traffic boom that is rippling through their networks.

ABI Research estimates that $12.5 billion will be spent on mobile gateways, subscriber databases, IMS, session border controllers, and software switch/media gateways in 2011. That represents an increase of 4.2 percent year-on-year (YoY).

Smartphone shipments in the U.K. grew from 177 million in 2009 to 302 million in 2010, a remarkable 71 percent growth rate.

Meanwhile, handset OEMs' market shares have fluctuated widely: Nokia's dropped from 39 percent to 33 percent, even as the collective share held by manufacturers of Android smartphones increased from 4 percent to 24 percent.

4.5 million tablet PCs shipped during the third quarter of 2010. Of those, about 93 percent were Apple iPads, according to ABI Research's Netbooks, MIDs, Media Tablets, and Mobile CE Market Data report.

Senior ABI Research practice director Jeff Orr notes that "Over time, Apple's first-to-market iPad advantage will inevitably erode to some extent."

Almost all single music tracks are now purchased digitally instead of in physical CD or vinyl formats in the UK. But digital album sales are falling as a result.

Artwork: Chip TaylorAccording to the latest chapter of Social Trends, on lifestyles and social participation, published last week by the U.K. Office for National Statistics (ONS) digital sales -- from online stores such as Apple's iTunes and Amazon MP3 -- increased by 92 percent between 2007 and 2009 and now stand at 98 percent of all singles sold.

A financial analyst based in the City of London has been forced to apologise for a "tasteless" joke about unwell Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Jobs announced on Monday that he is taking medical leave from the company.

Apple's sharp-shooting legal swat team has put the frighteners on a firm selling an action figure doll of its CEO Steve Jobs.

Just as the company was announcing a new batch of Steve Jobs dolls following the fast sell-out of the first 300.

Global smartphone shipments to mobile customers are forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 15 percent.

Artwork: Chip TaylorThe mobile business customer smartphone installed base will exceed 30 percent worldwide; in North America, it will exceed 65 percent.

Markets for advanced charging technologies (including solar-powered handsets, solar chargers, wireless power units, fuel-cell battery charging products and public charging kiosks), worth about $1.5 billion in 2010, are forecast to grow at a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate of more than 86 percent to exceed $34 billion in 2015.

As people carry and use increasing numbers of portable electronic devices, they have a growing need to charge their batteries on the go.

Growth in fixed broadband subscriptions has stalled in mature, already saturated European markets but is booming in the Asia-Pacific region.

The number of fixed broadband subscribers totaled just under 449 million in the second quarter of 2010, according to ABI Research's most recent broadband subscriber Market Data.