Almost a third (31 percent) of all mobile phone users in the United States own smartphones, but their adoption is higher among specific minority groups, says a report out today from Nielsen. Based on a survey conducted in December, Nielsen found that 27 percent of white mobile phone users in the U.S. currently own smartphones. …

Android has now surged past Symbian to become the world’s top smartphone platform, says a report out today from research firm Canalys. Global shipments of Android-based phones hit 32.9 million in the final quarter of 2010, pushing Nokia’s Symbian down to second place with 31 million smartphones shipped. The beneficiaries of the demand for Google’s mobile operating system were the …

Buffeted by ever more intense competition, Nokia saw its earnings fall for the final quarter of 2010, an ongoing downturn that has prompted the company to announce a major shift in strategy. Net profit for the quarter ended December 31 declined 21 percent to 745 million euros ($1.02 billion), compared with 950 million euros in the year-ago quarter. Sales were …

T-Mobile Samsung’s Galaxy Tab is now selling from T-Mobile for a new low of $249 after a $50 rebate. The only catch? You’ll still have to opt for a two-year contract. The price of the Galaxy Tab through T-Mobile is a significant drop from the $399 it originally cost when it made its debut in November. But the data plan …

The new personal femtocell from Ubiquisys. Ubiquisys A new portable device will soon be able to help people make cell phone calls in other countries without relying on local 3G networks. That bit of technical magic comes courtesy of a new device called an attocell, or a personal femotcell. Created by U.K.-based femtocell company Ubiquisys, the device is a small …

Everyone’s favorite government agency, the Internal Revenue Service, has launched its own mobile application. The IRS’s new iPhone app Released last week to iPhone and Android users, the free IRS2Go provides a few tidbits of information that could make April 15 a bit less stressful. Those of us fortunate enough to qualify for a refund can find out exactly when …

The growing wave of tablets is spurring mobile app developers to put the devices at the top of their priority lists, according to a new survey. An IDC and Appcelerator survey of app developers (PDF) found that interest in Android tablets shot up 12 points over the past three months with 74 percent “very interested” in developing for the Google …

Research In Motion will soon debut software that can segregate the personal from the professional. RIM Set to launch in two months, the BlackBerry Balance software will be able to separate personal e-mail, apps, and other content from those used on the job, Jeff McDowell, RIM’s senior vice president for business and platform marketing, said in a Reuters interview published …

Mobile e-mail is growing in popularity while the use of Web-based e-mail seems to be waning, according to a new study from ComScore. Looking back at November, ComScore found that the number of people sending e-mail via a dedicated client on a mobile device was up 36 percent from the prior November. Over the same period, the number of visitors …

HTC continued its recent winning streak as fourth-quarter sales and earnings both climbed dramatically on demand for its lineup of Android phones. HTC’s Evo 4G Sarah Tew/CNET For the quarter ended December 31, the mobile phone maker took in a net profit of NT$14.59 billion (US$500 million), a leap of 160 percent from 2009’s final quarter. Sales climbed to NT$104 …