After a comprehensive review of fourth quarter 2011 earnings, IDC found that it is Apple – not Samsung – that claimed the top spot as the globe’s biggest smartphone maker.

Apple’s 37 million iPhone sales during the last quarter of 2011 was enough to secure top honors for the venerable Cupertino, California-based tech giant.

IDC says the top global smartphone vendors for the period are as follows: Apple, Samsung, Nokia, RIM, and HTC.

On a full-year basis, total smartphone shipment volumes reached 491.4 million units in 2011, up a strong 61.3% from the 304.7 million units in 2010. This was higher than IDC’s full year estimate of 54.7% for the year, but still below 2010′s year-over-year growth of 75.7%. Although this marks a slowdown from 2010, IDC still fully expects continued double-digit growth for the foreseeable future.

“So-called ‘hero’ devices, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus and Apple’s iPhone 4S, garner the bulk of the attention heaped on the device type,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker program. “But a growing number of sub-$250 device offerings, based on the Android operating system, have allowed Google’s hardware partners to grow smartphone volumes and expand the market concurrently.”

“Attracted by a faster processor, improved camera and the Siri speech-driven agent, most iPhone buyers paid a premium for the iPhone 4S, making it the top-selling handset in Q4,” said Ross Rubin, executive director, Connected Intelligence for The NPD Group. “The iPhone 4S outsold the iPhone 4 by 75 percent, and outsold the iPhone 3GS, available for free on AT&T, five to one.”

But in a strange turn of events that seems to contradict no shortage of previous reports and projections, first-time smartphone buyers are choosing Android over iOS.

Android devices, says NPD, performed better among first-time smartphone buyers. Based on NPD’s monthly Smartphone Track service, among the first-time smartphone buyers in Q4, 57 percent purchased Android phones compared to just 34 percent who purchased iPhones.

“Android has been criticized for offering a more complex user experience than its competitors, but the company’s wide carrier support and large app selection is appealing to new smartphone customers,” Rubin said. “Android’s support of LTE at Verizon has also made it the exclusive choice for customers who want to take advantage of that carrier’s fastest network.”

The study found that Google Android strengthened its lead in the smartphone market during the period to capture a 47.3 percent market share.

All told, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices during the three-month period ending in December.

97.9 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in December, representing 40 percent of all mobile subscribers.

Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.3 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG with 20 percent share and Motorola with 13.3 percent share.

Apple, comScore found, continued to gain ground in the OEM market with 12.4 percent share of total mobile subscribers (up 2.2 percentage points), while RIM rounded out the top five with 6.7 percent share.

To check out the comScore MobiLens service for yourself, click here.

One of the key findings of the report shows that the average revenue rose by 41% in the Apple App Store for iPhone when looking at those applications that were already among the 100 highest grossing applications in any category, on the first day of the sale.

Moreover, Distimo’s report finds, the revenue during the whole sale increased by 22%. In the Apple App Store for iPad those figures were +52% and +19%, respectively. In the Google Android Market on the first day the revenue increased by 7%, and during the whole sale increased by 29%.

30% to 50% of the applications on sale experienced a decrease in revenue even though on average the revenue increased in all three stores for the total group of applications on sale.

“Our research,” Distimo says, “found that it is important to offer a significant price reduction to actually earn more revenue when putting an application on sale. In general, we noticed that the optimum sales occurred when the price was cut in half or the application was offered in tier 1 ($0.99) or tier 2 ($1.99).”

Another way to attract attention is by getting featured in one of the app stores. When looking at those applications that were already ranked among the top 100 most popular applications, the average gain in the first three days after getting featured was highest in Google Android Market (+42 ranks), followed by Apple App Store for iPad (+27 ranks), and Apple App Store for iPhone (+15). Looking at the whole period these applications were featured (seven days), the rank gains were more or less equal to the three days average in both Apple stores, but were even higher in the Google Android Market (+65 ranks).

To learn more about the insightful findings published today, click here.

Fueled in large part by Google’s mobile search advertising business, the industry reached new heights in 2011 and 2012 is already shaping up to put 2011 to shame.

Aided greatly by the surge in smartphone ownership and the ubiquitous dominance of mobile ad networks – with Google’s AdMob, Apple’s iAd, and Millennial Media chief among them – new estimates from eMarketer place mobile advertising’s growth off the charts.

According to the latest projections, mobile advertising spending in the US approached $1.45 billion last year, which represents an 89% increase year-over-year.

US mobile ad spending for 2012 is expected to reach $2.61 billion.

“Right now there are many researchers out there looking at nearly the same empirical data about the mobile marketplace and drawing completely disparate conclusions,” says Noah Elkin, eMarketer principal analyst. “In order to form the most complete picture possible about the mobile ad market, we think it’s essential to evaluate multiple information sources-rather than a single dataset-especially as the market remains immature.”

Elkin, however, notes that Google remains the wildcard when it comes to estimating the mobile ad industry’s future growth. If Google grows faster than expected, so too will the industry.

eMarketer believes Google’s mobile ad revenues for 2011 represented about 51.7% of the entire industry’s revenue.

Based on the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global tablet shipments reached 27 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011. As a result, Android claimed a record 39 percent global share.

Still, Apple held on to a 58 percent market share, although that once sizable lead continue to diminish.

“Global tablet shipments reached an all-time high of 26.8 million units in Q4 2011, surging 150 percent from 10.7 million in Q4 2010,” says Peter King, Director at Strategy Analytics. “Demand for tablets among consumer, business and education users remains strong. Apple shipped a robust 15.4 million iPads worldwide and maintained its strong market leadership with 58 percent share during the fourth quarter of 2011. Apple shrugged off the much-hyped threat from entry-level Android models this quarter.”

Other findings from the research show that global tablet shipments reached 66.9 million units in 2011, surging 260 percent from 18.6 million in 2010.

“Consumers are increasingly buying tablets in preference to netbooks and even entry-level notebooks or desktops,” the report reads.

Additionally, Microsoft captured a niche 1 percent global tablet share in Q4 2011.

“The upcoming release of Windows 8 this year cannot come quickly enough for Microsoft,” the research firm concludes, “so its hardware partners can start competing more effectively in the tablet space.”

Fewer than twenty-hours removed from the company’s record quarterly earnings report, analysts viewing the cold, hard data say Apple has likely bumped Samsung out of the top spot by a sizable margin.

Last night, Apple revealed sales of 37 million iPhones in the last three months of 2011 alone.

Samsung is expected to announce later this week that it sold only 35 million handsets in comparison worldwide.

Although Samsung produces a wide array of devices and Apple makes only one smartphone – the iPhone – Samsung didn’t see any of its products reaching the level of intense popularity achieved by the iPhone 4S after it’s October introduction.

Nokia is yet to report its sales results but analysts are almost universally expecting the company to place a distant third from Apple and Samsung.

Along with the growth of sales receipts is the growth of the App Store’s offerings. As of this writing, more than 18 billion downloads have been initiated through the App Store. And that number stands to compound exponentially in the months ahead as refreshed iOS-powered devices roll out.

Industry analysts believe the iPad 3 will arrive within 60 days, bringing with it a likely surge in app purchases.

Although Google Chairman Eric Schmidt predicted last month that mobile developers will soon make Android apps a higher priority than iOS apps, it’s doubtful that Android will wholly trump Apple as iOS continues to be the most lucrative and high profile operating system to develop for in the entire mobile space.

Polling data published this week shows that 36 percent of iPhone 4S buyers previously owned Android, BlackBerry, or Palm devices.

Shaken out, the numbers show that 50 percent of upgraders came from BlackBerry, 39 percent from an Android phone, and 10 percent from a Palm handset.

Although 43 percent of new iPhone 4S owners were upgrading from a previous generation of the iPhone, the strong number of platform jumpers impressed even the most optimistic of Apple supporters and market watchers.

“Apple sustained the strong demand at launch, and sold even more high-end models than before,” says CIRP co-founder Josh Lowitz. “iPhone started to take more sales from other smartphones, with 36 percent of buyers upgrading from an Android, Blackberry, or Palm, compared to 18 percent at launch.”

Later today, Apple will release its December quarter earnings.

If you’re an iPhone 4S owner, which devices did you upgrade from? Please weigh in with a thought or comment below.

That said, it could come as a significant blow to Apple that a growing number of mobile application developers are favoring the Android platform over iOS.

Based on the findings of Ovum’s second annual developer survey, the independent technology analyst reveals that Android looks set to replace Apple’s iOS in terms of importance to developers within the next 12 months.

However, the report adds, “despite a clear vie for ultimate supremacy between these two platforms, almost all developers support both.”

The research also shows a move away from traditional cross-platform mobile application development approaches (e.g. Java, Flash, WAP). Instead, developers are focusing their efforts on web-based standards (e.g. HTML5), which seem to be the preferred approach to building cross-platform applications.

“A smartphone platform’s success is dictated not only by the pull of consumers and the push of handset vendors and mobile operators but also by a healthy economy of applications delivered by third-party developers. Therefore, it is important for all players in the smartphone ecosystem to understand the choices developers are making today and the downstream impact of those choices,” say Adam Leach, devices & platforms practice leader at Ovum and author of the research.