Shopping with a smartphone is becoming commonplace in the United States. Developers who create applications related to the purchase of goods on the Internet in one way or another should pay special attention to statistics.

Microsoft has unexpectedly released the Xbox Live app for mobile devices on the iOS platform.

OnLive cloud service has become available for Android users. One of the first games specially adapted for tablets was L.A. Noir from Rockstar Games.

In this issue: Kindle Fire breaks out into the leaders; the number of downloads in the Android Market has exceeded 10 billion; Windows Phone has launched a counteroffensive.

HTC has officially announced a drop in sales. Its struggle with the market leaders – Apple and Samsung – is escalating.

In its official blog, Google announced that 1 billion apps are downloaded in the store every month, and the number of downloads continues to grow. The total number of downloads exceeded 10 billion.

According to the results of the fourth quarter of 2011, Kindle Fire will take the second place in the global tablet market.

Microsoft Corporation plans to expand the audience of its mobile platform at the expense of Android and iOS users. The Internet demo version of Windows Phone 7 is used as a promotion tool.

Improved graphics, an updated camera and a voice control tool (similar to Siri in the latest iPhone) – all this may be waiting for Android in the near future.

Black Friday even overtook app stores: prices in the Apple App Store were reduced by 1,415 apps.

ChangeWave has published a new study of satisfaction of iPhone 4S owners. The vast majority – 96% – are satisfied with their device, which puts the iPhone at an unattainable height.

After Apple started accepting payments in local currency in China, the number of downloads in the store increased dramatically by a third. First of all, it affected the category of games.

According to Gartner‘s forecasts, the total tablet and smartphone market will be 44% larger than the personal computer market in 2011. And by the end of 2014, the estimated base of mobile devices will exceed the total number of personal computers. At the recent ITxpo 2011 conference, Gartner Vice President David Willis spoke about the future of the enterprise tablet application market.

Two tablets are currently fighting for leadership in the holiday season: Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Apple’s iPad.

The vast majority of smartphone users in the US – 71% – own either an Android device or an iPhone. If we talk about apps, the superiority is even greater: 83% of those who downloaded apps in the last 30 days use either iPhone or Android.

Windows Phone 7 Marketplace is now the fifth largest app store. It is outstripped only by the Apple App Store, Google Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store and BlackBerry App World.

43% of all smartphones sold in the UK in October were iPhones, according to research by Kantar Worldplanet. For comparison, Android phones took only 35% of sales. However, the total number of Android devices in England is still ahead of the iPhone.

In preparation for the release of the new version of BlackBerry, RIM is trying to lure Android developers to its side. Despite the general belief that the battle in the field of mobile devices has narrowed down to the struggle between iOS and Android only, RIM emphasizes at every step that the BlackBerry platform is not dead.