Luckily for music lovers, the Grammy Live Mobile App is now available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users.

If this announcement sounds familiar, there’s a good chance that it is. For the third year in a row, music fans worldwide will have unprecedented access to all the VIP and backstage events leading up to and throughout the 54th Annual Grammy Awards, airing Sunday, Feb. 12 at 8p.m. on CBS.

Beginning Friday – and running through Sunday – Grammy Live will feature three days of exclusive live videos, blogging, tweets and re-tweets, as well as official news reports and updates from Grammy Live hosts Alison Haislip, Drew Hinze, and John Norris.

“We’re giving music fans the ultimate Grammy experience this year through GRAMMY Live,” said Evan Greene, Chief Marketing Officer for The Recording Academy. “We connect with music in very personal ways, and through shared, social experiences, fans are more eager than ever to support and follow their favorite artists in new and exciting ways.”

“We’re excited to be partnering with The Recording Academy to bring music fans this incredible multi-platform experience,” adds Marc DeBevoise, SVP and GM of Entertainment at CBS Interactive. “By making this program available in so many ways, we’re catering to all music fans, giving them an exclusive virtual ticket to the biggest music event of the year on any device.”

Do you plan to remain engaged with your smartphone to follow all the Grammys coverage this weekend?

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.”

Just two weeks ago, massive crowds outside of Beijing’s Apple Store caused Chinese police to deploy crowd-control measures to ease the iPhone 4S frenzy caused by the device’s long-anticipated arrival.

So unruly were Apple fans that the company was forced to strip the Aple Stores of their iPhone 4S unventory and revert back to selling the smartphones online only in China for the time being.

Not surprisingly, in response to the iPhone 4S frenzy, China is now seen as Apple’s next big market to conquer. In order to do so, says investment bank Morgan Stanley, Apple will all but certainly team with both China Telecom and China Mobile to make future generations of the iPhone available on all three Chinese carriers.

With such an eventuality likely before year’s end, Huberty predicts that some 40 million iPhones will be sold in China in 2013. That’s not bad, considering that Apple sold 68.5 million iPhones all around the world in 2011.

Huberty also believes that Apple’s Chinese ambitions will be greatly helped by the fact that the company’s sixth-generation iPhone may be compatible with China Mobile’s approaching 4G TD-LTE network.

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.

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.

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.

Blue Bite

Blue Bite teamed up with RMG networks — a provider of Out-Of-Home (OOH) TV & video networks — as well as mobile advertising provider Amobee to launch the campaign for HotelTonight across a handful of major U.S. markets.  HotelTonight’s mobile app allows users to book same-day hotel reservations.  To jumpstart the campaign, Amobee utilized RMG Network’s locations outfitted with Blue Bite’s mTAG Platform to reach HotelTonight’s core demographic.  These RMG network locations included eight major U.S. airports and hundreds of “busy downtown cafe locations across the country.”

As people passed by one of RMG’s digital screens, they saw a 30-second video clip promoting the app.  If interested, users then had the option to tap their NFC handsets on Blue Bite’s mTAG located in the venue to immediately download the HotelTonight app.  Those without NFC on their mobile devices were also able to download the app using a QR Code, Bluetooth or WiFi.

In the six-week campaign period, Blue Bite recorded over 15,000+ unique mobile engagements, with more than 5,000 unique handset engagements from iPhone and Android devices.  In addition, 50 percent of all Blue Bite interactions resulted in the user downloading the HotelTonight mobile app.  This is substantial given NFC’s recent entry into the U.S. market and the fact that’s only now beginning to be used as a marketing tool.

Blue Bite has had a lot of success with unique marketing campaigns that leverage new-age location-based technologies such as Bluetooth and NFC, and this campaign is no exception.  “This groundbreaking campaign demonstrates the combined power of digital place-based media and mobile technologies to activate customers in meaningful ways,” said Mikhail Damiani, CEO and Co-Founder from Blue Bite.  “As people rely more heavily on their mobile devices, digital place-based media has become the front line for marketers looking to engage active consumers who are on the path to purchase,” said Chuck Strottman, Sr. Director of Marketing from RMG Networks.

“Innovative digital players like HotelTonight understand that mobile plays an invaluable part in the brand experience and consumer engagement,” said Mark Strecker, COO of Amobee. “Many merchants are starting to use Amobee’s leading edge mobile advertising technology to interact with the physical world, whether it be through NFC, QR codes and Bluetooth technology, to provide an engaging customer experience and maximize revenue.”

On Wednesday, the largest carrier in the United States announced that it has a new “hard requirement” of all future smartphones on its network: they must support 4G LTE.

In response to the so-called demand, iPhone loyalists are openly questioning whether the next generation Apple touchscreen smartphone will finally embrace 4G LTE.

Others, however, are already drawing attention to a loophole in Verizon’s bold pledge.

According to the carrier, the “requirement” may not be as strict as it sounds. Verizon admits that exceptions will be made, although no insight was given as to whether such an exception will be made for the iPhone.

One thing, of course, is patently obvious. And that is Verizon certainly won’t drop the iPhone – the hottest new smartphone on its network – in the event that the iPhone 5 isn’t 4G friendly.

“We’re paving the way here for the rest of the world on LTE,” Keith Lampron, Verizon’s associate director of device marketing, tells CNET.

Initially, 25 “specialty stores” will open and be dedicated exclusively to Apple products. The stores will be opened inside of existing Target retail locations.

Target is yet to announced which stores will be the first recipients of these so-called “Apple Mini Stores.”

Apple already has centers within Best Buy stores, but an expansion to Target makes the computer brand accessible to shoppers who are not necessarily looking for electronics.

According to the New York Times, Target, which currently sells iPhones, iPads and iPods, hasn’t commented on whether the retail giant will also begin selling Macs.

The Apple details came after Target said it would open in May small boutiques within its stores called The Shops at Target. The shops would will initially feature small, local stores like Polka Dog Bakery in Boston and The Webster in Miami, which sells clothing and accessories.

Apple has acquired Anobit Technologies Ltd., an Israeli company that manufactures a flash-memory drive part for the iPhone and iPad.

As the world’s largest buyer of NAND flash memory, the acquisition puts Apple in a better financial position to maintain and accelerate its appetite for that which Anobit makes.

Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Apple, confirmed that the purchase took place, although he opted to skip any relevant financial details.

“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” Dowling told Bloomberg.

Israel, with a population similar in size to Switzerland’s at 7.7 million, has about 60 companies traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market, the most of any nation outside North America after China. Israel is also home to the largest number of startups per capita in the world.

Industry chatter suggests that Apple reportedly paid $400 – $500 million for Anobit, although neither party will address that speculation.