According to the published findings this week by prominent research firm IDC, the smartphone market hit all-time quarterly highs due to seasonal strength and a wider variety of offerings.

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.

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Within four short years, a majority of U.S.-based Internet users will access the web from their mobile devices, not their personal consumers.

According to projections contained within a new report from research firm IDC, the rate of mobile web use is set to balloon exponentially.

The predicted compound annual growth rate between 2010 and 2015 is 16.6%.

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New research out from Gartner and IDC predict the market share for Windows Phone will jump from roughly 4.3% today to more than 20% by 2015 — effectively putting it in second place behind Android, and ahead of iOS in third place.

While this sounds like a stretch, analysts have been somewhat surprised by how much share Microsoft’s mobile platform has been able to snag recently.  Windows Phone head of marketing Achim Berg said yesterday that the road to such success starts in Europe, with the launch of the HTC Radar and Titan on October 1.  Microsoft has even hired “hundreds of salesman” to help demonstrate the power of its newly refreshed platform, and plans to target women and young people to nab that 20 percent share.

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According to the latest projections by International Data Corporation (IDC), mobile app downloads are on track to grow from a relatively paltry 10.7 billion in 2010 to 182.7 billion in 2015.

IDC presented its research and projections in its study entitled “Worldwide and U.S. Mobile Applications, Storefronts, Developer, and In-App Advertising 2011-2015 Forecast: Emergence of Postdownload Business Models.”

But perhaps the most intriguing element of the IDC research report is the monetization trend behind the rampant app growth.

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According to the latest Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report from International Data Corporation (IDC), the global smartphone market is on pace to grow 55% in 2011 (472 million shipments). But over the next four years, IDC says smartphone shipments will reach unprecedented new heights. By 2015, IDC estimates that worldwide smartphone shipments will reach 982 million.

The rapidly expanding smartphone market, IDC claims, will grow more than four times the rate of the overall mobile phone market this year. Why? Helping drive sales are falling average prices, increased phone functionality, and lower-cost data plans.

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The worldwide smartphone market is growing. And fast.

According to the latest projections by the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, the global smartphone market is expected to grow 49.2% in 2011.

The growth will be driven by an ever-widening pool of consumers and enterprise users turning in their feature phones for more sophisticated smartphones.

The IDC’s research finds that smartphone vendors will likely ship more than 450 million smartphones in 2011 compared to the 303.4 million units shipped in 2010.

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IDC has been busy lately with its prediction for 2011, with one data point standing out from the rest as an indication to how massive the mobile application market already is, and how large it will continue to become.

According to its forecast, IDC says the number of downloaded apps is expected to increase from 10.9 billion worldwide in 2010 to more than 76.9 billion in 2014.  In addition, worldwide mobile apps revenues will experience similar growth, surpassing $35 billion in 2014.

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