According to the latest data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), Apple’s iPhone 4S is picking up scores of new users from rival platforms.

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.

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On Sunday, the mobile world was rocked by news that embattled smartphone maker RIM is losing two of its top executives.

Research in Motion co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have voluntarily stepped down.

Both men served as co-chief executive officers and co-chairmen of the board. According to details made available late Sunday, the former executives will be replaced by previous Chief Operating Officer Thorsten Heins (new RIM CEO) and Barbara Stymiest (New independent RIM board chair).

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On Tuesday, NPD provided research to show how Android and Apple are firmly cementing their respective roles as the top dogs in mobile operating systems.

The prominent market research firm says that Android’s operating system share of smartphone sales grew to 53 percent from January through October 2011.

Meanwhile, Apple’s iOS share grew to reach 29 percent of the market. All told, Apple and Android collectively retain an 82% share of the market.

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While Canadians are all about microblogging and social media, recent numbers indicate they don’t care much for mobile marketing and advertising.  In fact, there are only 5.2M people in Canada who actively use their Smartphones for browsing and apps according to recent comScore data.

Following this surprising revelation, marketing and research firm Mediative put together a new whitepaper that takes a hard look at the mobile advertising ecosystem in Canada and uncovered some interesting stats and insight.  For example, Canada has a total of 20M residents that own cell phones, of which roughly 7.215M are smartphones.  With such low smartphone penetration, it’s easier to understand why only 5.2M actively use their devices for mobile browsing and apps.

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According to new data out from comScore, the total number of Americans who own mobile devices now tops 234M, with 90M of which being smartphones.  The study covers the three-month average period ending October 2011, and includes a survey of more than 30,000 US mobile subscribers.

In terms of mobile OEM data, Samsung remains the top handset manufacturer overall with 25.5% total market share, followed by LG with 20.6% marketshare and Motorola with 13.6%.  In terms of mobile operating systems, Android holds on to the number one spot — now sitting at 46.3% total market share.  Apple comes in at second place with 28.1% of the market — up only one percentage point over the proceeding three-month period.  RIM rounded out the top three with 17.2% share, followed by Microsoft in fourth place with 5.4% and Symbian in fifth place with just 1.6%.

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On Tuesday, Millennial Media published its latest Mobile Mix Report which indicates that little has changed in the smartphone landscape since the latest report was issued.

Once again in October, Android topped Millennial Media’s usage share charts (as it has for eleven straight months) as the smartphone platform landscape remained largely unchanged. All told, Millennial Media’s mobile ad network served 56% of impressions to Android devices, 28% to iOS devices and 13% to BlackBerrys in October – identical to the data we’ve seen since late September.

Apple remained the leading manufacturer on the platform, and the iPhone remained the leading mobile phone. Android remained the top OS when combining Smartphone & Connected Device impressions.

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This week, Research In Motion announced the BlackBerry BoldTM 9900 and BlackBerry CurveTM 9360 smartphones are the first SIM-based NFC smartphones to be certified by MasterCard Worldwide as PayPass-approved devices.

According to a press release from RIM, the certification “was granted on the basis of the BlackBerry smartphones meeting the functionality, interoperability and security requirements of MasterCard.”

What does it all mean? With this certification, any MasterCard PayPass-issuing bank globally will be able to deploy MasterCard PayPass-enabled accounts to the SIM card of these smartphones.

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