Facebook may change the face of mobile marketing as we know it in response to the social network’s rumored plan to launch “featured stories” within weeks.

Analogous – at least in theory – to Twitter’s Promoted Tweets, Facebook may begin adding “featured stories” into people’s mobile feeds. What does this amount to? Marketing-led posts that could deliver invaluable opportunities to advertisers of every variety.

But Facebook has already denied the welcoming of any “rich media featured stories.”

“We want to clarify that we are not working with any agency to create paid ads on our mobile platform,” a spokesperson for Facebook said Monday.

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According to an eye-opening projection today from Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, Apple’s Chinese investment will begin paying enormous dividends next year.

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.

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When it comes to kicking off 2012 with a bang, Facebook may be poised to do just that if the rumor mill is correct today. According to the Wall Street Journal on Monday morning, social networking giant Facebook might announce its IPO this week.

“The deal,” the WSJ report reads, “could raise as much as $10 billion and value the social network between $75 billion and $100 billion.”

Sources “familiar” with the matter are quoted in the article but not named.

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The U.S. mobile advertising market is on fire, growing faster than even the most optimistic of industry analysts had projected in recent months.

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.

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On Wednesday, the tech space was buzzing with news that appears to suggest that Apple has officially surpassed Samsung as the world’s biggest smartphone maker.

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.

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The third-generation Apple iPad is, without question, the most eagerly anticipated gadget in the tech world today. And judging by the report Wednesday from Japanese Mac news website Macotakara, the wait is almost over.

According to a trusted Chinese source speaking with the publication, production has already commenced on the iPad 3 as manufacturers in Asia scramble to have the first batch of refreshed tablets ready to roll out by early March, when they are expected to begin shipping to consumers and Apple’s increasingly expansive list of retail partners.

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Start spreading the news. Apple is coming to the Big Apple next week to host a media event on Thursday, January 19th in New York City.

On Wednesday, Apple started sending out invitations to the media for an event described as being “educational” in nature. In other words, don’t look for any major product releases or refreshes.

The January 19th event will take place at the Guggenheim Museum.

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