Gartner's latest report into worldwide mobile phone sales says end-users bought 314.7 million devices in the first quarter of 2010, 17% up on the same period in 2009. Smartphone sales rose 48.7% to 54.3 million units.

Hong Kong-based manufacturer G-Five made its debut in the top 10, while an increase in OEM 'white box' manufacturing has seen the 'others' category increase.

ABI Research says the number of smartphone applications downloaded from 'app stores' will keep growing until 2013… but those figures will then start to drop.

Last year, consumers downloaded 2.4 billion applications from application stores – a figure that'll almost treble by 2013, when almost 7 billion apps will be downloaded. Apple's App Store will remain the market leader until 2013 according to ABI's report, despite pressure from Android and Symbian. However, ABI Research says the evolution of the mobile internet will then lead to consumers starting to head away from dedicated stores for their software applications. Total app downloads will probably continue to grow, although downloads via app stores are expected to fall.

At Nokia's AGM today, company CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told shareholders that Nokia had built a solid foundation for future success.

He said "By combining services with devices, Nokia is in a stronger position to grow and create more value for our shareholders. We still have plenty of work to do, but we have built a solid foundation. We believe in our strategy."

Mr Kallasvuo also said Nokia is planning to introduce a new generation of devices this year that he expects will help close the gap with high-end smartphone competitors.

Microsoft and Nokia have launched the first application that's been created from the partnership announced last August. It's called Microsoft Communicator Mobile and is a business-focussed communications client for selected Symbian-based Nokia Eseries smartphones.

Communicator Mobile enables users to see their colleagues’ availability from the contacts application. Users can then click to communicate with colleagues using their preferred method, from instant messaging and email to texting or making a phone call.

This new application is available to download for the Nokia E72 and Nokia E52. The two companies plan to pre-install Communicator Mobile on select Nokia smartphones in the future, with support for additional devices also planned.

Application development on the Symbian platform is now "as easy as creating a web page", according to the open-source Symbian Foundation. It's just launched a set of app development tools that let web developers use their existing HTML, CSS and JavaScript skills in a mobile context.