Apple launched the iPhone

By: d-exploit on 6:26 PM / comment : 0 Mobile, Technology

The Moscone Center Web site provides scant details on the event, which apparently will take place at Moscone West, describing it as a convention/tradeshow. Apple has not yet responded to TheStreet's request for comment on this story.

Last year's WWDC took place at the same location from June 7 to June 11. The event also marked the launch of the iPhone 4, which has since gone on to become Apple's fastest-selling product.

Apple is widely expected to launch its next-generation iPhone sometime during the summer, maintaining its recent smartphone product cycle. There has also been chatter that the next iPhone will contain Qualcomm's(QCOM)world phone chip, enabling the device to work on both GSM and CDMA networks around the world.

With the Verizon(VZ) iPhone due to launch on Thursday, Apple's smartphone looks set to continue its upward trajectory. Analyst firm Needham & Company, for example, raised its Apple price target on Monday on stronger-than-forecast iPhone and iPad sales.

Needham pushed its Apple price target from $375 to $450, citing 2010 iPhone sales which exceeded the company's forecast by almost 20%.

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"The iPhone's imminent launch on the Verizon and possibly other CDMA networks could add five-plus percentage points to its share of the worldwide smartphone market," said Needham analyst Charlie Wolf, in a note. Apple currently has 16% of the smartphone market, according to Needham.

Apple shares closed up $5.35, or 1.54%, at $351.85 on Monday.

Android Leads Smartphone Surge

By: d-exploit on 1:06 AM / comment : 0 Mobile

Android smartphones led the surge of global handset sales last year, according to research firm Gartner.

The report said that smartphone sales skyrocketed 72 percent to 297 million units in 2010, with Android providing a tenfold increase to 67 million shipments. Total mobile phone sales rose 32 percent to 1.6 billion units in the period.

The results come a week after another research company, Canalys, said that Android surpassed Nokia's Symbian platform to become the most widely-used mobile operating system in the world. In Gartner's estimates, Symbian still edged out Android.

The recent growth of Google's software puts pressure on Nokia, who has been developing a turnaround strategy amid plummeting profits. The Finnish phone maker, which largely missed the shifting consumer demand from feature phones to smartphones, plans to announce a strategy on Friday to regain lost market share.

Nokia is expected to shake up its management team, and perhaps abandon Symbian altogether for Microsoft's Windows Phone 7. The company's market share slipped to 28.9 percent from 36.4 percent over the year, Gartner said.

Meanwhile, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and Apple displaced Sony Ericsson and Motorola to become the fourth- and fifth-largest handset companies mobiledia.