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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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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Mobile application developers will soon be able to boast of their own professional industry association.

Spearheaded by former Digital Media Association executive director Jon Potter, the Application Developers Alliance will officially launch next week at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The new organization is being hailed as a professional outfit charged with promoting the best interests of mobile developers. The effort will include raising greater education opportunities, providing cloud hosting services, and initiating government lobbying efforts.

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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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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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According to ABI Research, mobile marketing stands to benefit greatly from the advent of Near field communications (NFC) technology.

ABI Research’s new study, “NFC Tags,” forecasts the demand and value of the primary applications for NFC tags, including smart posters, information pick-up, check-in, infotainment, and personalization, and other non-payment services.

The study shows that smart posters and mobile marketing are the greatest opportunity for service providers and manufacturers of NFC tags; they account for over half of shipments to date and are expected to be the fastest growing segment, accounting for 70% of shipments in 2016, the report reveals.

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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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