According to a new report published Thursday by Ovum, smartphones will outperform the overall market for mobile phones, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 24.9% between 2011-17.

If that projection manifests, it will mean that smartphone shipments will reach 1.7 billion units by 2017.

Predictions show Android as the dominant operating system over the next five years as handset vendors rush to make it their primary smartphone platform.

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If a small business is growing today, there’s a good chance mobile marketing has something to do with it.

That’s according to a new Small Business Mobile Survey from Web.com Group, Inc.

On Thursday, results of the new survey were published. Not surprisingly, the findings indicate that mobile marketing has played a major role in the expanding business activity within the small business community.

The published report notes that 69% of small businesses presently consider mobile marketing “crucial to their growth” in the next five years.

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On Thursday, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) published its first ever “SmartGraphic.”

Did you know that one in five Americans communicates more with their loved ones via mobile text message than face-to-face?

As it turns out, that’s one of the many fascinating findings visible in the MMA’s first SmartGraphic, which is posted below.

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Since the first iPhone was released in 2007, rumors have swirled that Apple is entertaining the idea and technology behind creating a liquid metal-based future generation iPhone.

Although we have no way to confirm or deny the company’s purported exploration of that possibility, it finally appears that the liquid metal iPhone won’t become a reality at least in the near future.

Dr. Atakan Peker, the so-called inventor of Liquidmetal, says the technology behind a liquid metal iPhone isn’t ripe enough to be a viable and cost-effective material alternative for iPhone design and construction.

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The Cox media and digital empire is growing rapidly. And mobile will factor heavily in all future growth.

That was the announcement today by Cox Digital Solutions upon announcement of the launch of its first mobile offering, CDS Mobile, which will connect national brands to local audiences among quality local media and vertical content sites, in any market nationwide.

The Cox Digital network, if you’re unfamiliar, covers more than 2,600 sites today, including the Web properties of various regional newspaper, TV and radio stations held by major publishers and media companies.

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Several months ago, rumors began swirling that Apple had acquired discovery app Chomp as part of an ongoing effort to deliver search improvements to the App Store.

Chomp, if you’re not familiar, uses a nifty little algorithm to sift, sort, and organize apps in order to recommend them to users based on what the mobile device owner is looking for.

Since February, when Apple reportedly paid some $50 million for the firm, little has changed. But as more time passes, Apple is making it quite evident that the company wishes to keep its newest property all to itself.

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Here’s a question to ask ChaCha… where’s a great place to turn to for information in the U.K.?

Thinking ChaCha? Not anymore.

On Friday, published reports indicate that ChaCha is folding up its operation in the United Kingdom due to poor user growth.

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