Nokia’s holiday quarter results confirmed what many analysts had forecast — the company has sold more than 1 million Lumia Windows Phones. However, even with a growing Windows Phone market and a quarterly platform support payment of more than $250 million from Microsoft, the company still posted a $1.4 billion loss for the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Nokia sold 19.6 million smartphones, a drop of 31 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2010, when the device maker shifted 28.6 million smartphones. Year-over-year, the company’s operating profit was down 81 percent and the company’s operating margin dropped from 12.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010 to just 3.4 percent in the same period in 2011. Feature phone volume was down only slightly, with the company reporting fourth quarters sales of 93.9 million units, a one percent drop over 2010’s numbers.

What Nokia did emphasize was sales of Windows Phone devices. The company has sold more than 1 million Lumia 710 and 800 devices, which bodes well for the sales prospects of its highly anticipated Lumia 900 handset. On Jan. 25 Nokia announced it would be pricing the 4G handset at $99, an aggressive strategy that will make it one of the most affordable LTE smartphones on the market.

The move will make the Lumia 900 significantly cheaper than Apple’s iPhone 4S and new Android phones like Samsung’s Galaxy S, both of which cost typically $199 with a two year agreement. Nokia also revealed it will be making Windows Phone devices available in the fast growing Chinese and Latin American markets in the first half of 2012.

By comparison, in its holiday quarter, Apple reported it has sold 37.04 million iPhones, helping to propel the company to a record setting $46.3 billion in revenues.

The Most Used Smartphone OS in the World is Symbian – Nokia’s Symbian operating system was the most popular smartphone OS in 2011, according to a report from StatCounter. The OS, used mainly on lower-end smartphones that are popular in South America, Africa and Asia accounted for 33.5 percent of the global market. Apple’s iOS was second with a 22.6 percent share, Android followed with 21.7 percent and BlackBerry’s share declined to 7.6 percent.

Samsung Most Popular Phone Manufacturer in US, Apple Gains Ground - According to ComScore’s latest U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share report, Samsung is the most popular OEM. In the past three months the manufacturer has increased its market share by 0.3 percent and now accounts for 25.6 percent of all mobile phones. In the same period of time Apple gained ground, increasing its market share by 1.4 percent to capture 11.2 percent of the handset market.

Christmas Day Boosts Mobile Shopping - Christmas Day was a busy day for shoppers according to IBM. The volume of online shopping conducted on the holiday jumped 16.4 percent year-on-year, with mobile device purchases rising more than 170 percent year-on-year. The most popular mobile device used to make online purchases was the iPad, accounting for 7 percent of the holiday sales.

Windows Phone Marketplace Passes 50,000 Apps – The Windows Phone marketplace is now adding new apps at a rate of 265 a day, according to All About Windows Phone. The market began the year with less than 10,000 apps, and has now published a total of 50,126 apps — an achievement that took it just under 14 months. By comparison the Android took 19 months to pass the 50,000 app mark, Blackberry 26 months and Apple 12 months.

Chillingo Moves to Windows Phone – EA’s mobile game publisher Chillingo has released its first game for the Windows phone marketplace, Spider Jack. The game is also available both on iOS and Android for $0.99.

HP Tried to Sell webOS for $1.2 Billion - VentureBeat is reporting that HP tried and failed to sell its assets in Palm and the webOS operating system for $1.2 billion dollars, an offer that was turned down by Amazon, Intel, Samsung and Facebook. HP eventually made webOS open source.

Christmas Was Big for the Kindle Fire – While it did not provide an exact number of units sold, Amazon has revealed that the Kindle Fire was the most gifted and most wished for product in its store this Christmas, and it was the top selling product in the UK, France, Spain and Italy. Earlier in the year the retailer boosted its suppliers orders for the tablet.

[Funding] Just.Me Nets $2.7 Million in Funding – Stealth startup Just.Me has raised $2.7 million in Series A funding for its as yet undefined all-in-one social management tool. The SEC filing did not disclose which companies participated in the funding round.

OpenFeint Releases New Social Features — Aside from its activity in China, OpenFeint has begun its roll out of new social features for Android. This includes player status updates and a new message wall thus far.

[Update] Android Phones Get Google Video Update — The Google Videos app for Android gets a nice update. Previously only supporting Android 3.0, the app now functions on Android 2.2 and 2.3.

[Update] Google+ iOS App Receives iPad & iPod Touch Support — In a minor update, the iOS version of Google+ has received a minor update allowing for it to run on both the iPad and iPod Touch. However, the implementation is decidedly basic and lacks significant optimization.

[Update] ZombieSmash! Receives Multiplayer Update — The iOS title of ZombieSmash! received a new update recently adding in a multiplayer battle game mode, tasking players to attempt and “out-survive” one another. Moreover, the new feature supports full voice chat.

iOS 5′s Fifth Pre-Release Shows Speech-to-Text Feature — According to 9to5Mac, the latest pre-release of iOS 5 shows that the newest version hosts a feature for speech-to-text. Currently, it is activated by a microphone icon next to the digital spacebar.

[image via 9to5Mac]

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Coming to iOS — Another announcement comes out of Hothead Games, as the studio notes the coming of a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy app, slated for iOS release this fall. The interactive title will include screenshots, creature information, and generally be designed to feel like the actually Guide itself.

Mobage Releases for iPhone in Japan — DeNA has released its mobile social games network, Mobage, in Japan’s App Store this week, reports Penn-Olson. Though the platform has been available in mobile browsers, it did not have a dedicated app.

Rovio Mobile Seeks New Funding — Rovio Mobile is in talks to acquire new funding, says Bloomberg. This funding would raise the valuation of the company to $1.2 billion, according to two individuals “with knowledge of the discussions.”

Apple Applies for New Patent for iDevices – Apple has applied for a new patent for integrating “pico projectors” into future iDevices and MacBooks, reports Patently Apple. As suggested by the application, it looks to support shadow and silhouette gesturing.

Android Tops Ad Impression Share for Q2 — Millennial Media has released a new set of numbers today noting the growth of smartphone and mobile OS manufacturers, reports TechCrunch. The most recent data, however, notes that Android now holds 54 percent of ad impression share with iOS holding 26 percent.

iOS Shows Higher Click-Through Rates — Though Android appears to host greater ad impressions, a new study from Jumptap is showing that iOS actually has a higher click-through rate (CTR), with Android coming in fourth, reports Search Engine Watch. Currently, iOS hosts a CTR of .78 percent, “other” devices hold .57 percent, Symbian has .50 percent, and Android’s CTR is .47 percent.

[Rumor] Android Ice Cream Sandwich Leaks — Images of the latest version of the Android OS, “Ice Cream Sandwich,” have found their way to the web through Android Police and RootzWiki. Most of the changes appear aesthetic but it does also seem to have a panorama mode for the camera and utilizes near-field communication technology.

[Rumor] iCloud Phone May Acompany iPhone 5 — According to Apple’n'Apps, several “sources” have noted that Apple may be looking to release an “iCloud iPhone” along with the iPhone 5. These sources are stating that the iCloud phone would be low-cost and free with a two-year contract.

[Launch] Kickin Momma & Kard Combat Update Hit App Store – Hothead Gameshas announced the release of its newest title, Kicking Momma in the app store. Currently $0.99, the title hosts a Peggle-style of play. In addition to this, Hothead Games has also released a new update for its strategic card game, Kard Combat. The new update grants players who have bought the game in full (for $9.99) access to four new mage types and two new game modes.

[Launch] Retro Title, A Space Shooter, Releases on iOS – In another iOS launch, games developer Frima has announced the launch of its latest title, a free-to-play app called A Space Shooter. The title hosts a retro-arcade-style of play and monetizes through in-app purchases.

[Launch] Greenopolis Stays Environmentally Friendly in New Mobile App – The enivornmentally friendly company of Greenopolis has launched a new mobile app for iOS and Android dubbed RecyclePix. The social title allows users to take pictures of themselves and friends recycling and share them on social feeds. Doing so earns “Greenopolis Points” which can then be redeemed for real world rewards and discounts.

[Launch] Pigs In Trees Flips Angry Birds Premise – PAN Vision andTactile Entertainment have announced the launch of Pigs In Trees, flipping Angry Birds on its head. Tree-going swine must now defend their home from swarms of attacking woodpeckers, but rather than use physics-based destruction, opts for path-drawing defense.

For mobile developers, there are more than plenty of statistics abound to gauge relative market size for different smartphone platforms.

Google’s Android chief Andy Rubin said last month that the OS is seeing more than 300,000 activations a day while Apple said in its most recent earnings call that the company has cumulatively sold 160 million iOS devices. Nielsen said today that Android, iOS and RIM are in a three-way tie among smartphone owners in the U.S.

However, a more relevant number to gauge potential market size for mobile app developers may be the number of Facebook users worldwide on each platform. Facebook is likely a decent proxy for smartphone users willing to download and engage with applications (outside of markets like Japan, China and South Korea where the company has a weak presence). Unlike the statistics that Apple has released, it also takes out users who may have more than one iOS device.

By this metric, Android is growing five times as fast as iOS, adding just over 99,000 monthly actives a day for Facebook’s native app. Facebook for iPhone boasts 63,021,033 monthly actives to Android’s 25,300,775, but it only adds about 19,750 monthly actives per day. When you add in HTC, Samsung, SonyEricsson, LG and Droid phones — many of which run Android — iOS still has a three-to-two lead for now. One other important detail to note is that Facebook for iPhone’s growth may also be on hiatus this week as consumers wait for the phone to come to Verizon on Feb. 10.

Other platforms are interesting to watch as well. Although Windows Phone 7 came to market last fall after a two to three year delay, it has shown a steady growth rate. Facebook for Windows Phone 7 has 320,807 monthly actives with the highest growth rate of any platform over the past week at 5.9 percent.

Snaptu, a company that helps Facebook reach feature phones that it doesn’t design native applications for, also boasted 3 percent growth this week by adding 119, 586 monthly actives to reach 3,565,651. Two weeks ago, Snaptu announced a partnership with Facebook to overhaul its apps for more than 2,500 models of feature phones.

Facebook Usage on Feature and Smartphones

	Name	MAU	Gain	Gain,%
1.	Facebook for Android	25,300,775	+693,653	+3%
2.	Facebook for Blackberry Smartphones	29,281,263	+249,866	+0.8%
3.	Facebook for iPhone	63,021,033	+138,280	+0.2%
4.	Snaptu	3,565,651	+119,586	+3%
5.	HTC Sense	5,946,870	+95,833	+2%
6.	Ovi by Nokia	2,468,604	+74,879	+3%
7.	Samsung Mobile	5,106,133	+54,388	+1%
8.	DROID	1,910,688	+42,536	+2%
9.	LG Phone	963,382	+25,787	+3%
10.	Facebook for Windows Phone	320,807	+17,951	+5.9%

In what amounts to a tectonic shift for the global smartphone market, Google’s Android operating system upstaged Nokia’s Symbian for the first time in phone shipments worldwide, according to Canalys, a U.K. research firm.

Android shipments grew by more than sixfold to 32.9 million devices, fueled by sales of Verizon’s Droid line of phones then by Samsung’s and HTC’s devices, over the past year. Nokia also grew, but only by 30 percent to 31.0 million devices worldwide, which was not enough to preserve its lead. The only major platform to decline in shipments was Microsoft, which may reverse this trend this year with Windows Phone 7. Android also posted a strong performance in Asia, with 1.4 million units shipped in Japan. Nokia lost out to other handset makers in China, seeing its market share drop to 56 percent from 76 percent a year ago.

Going into 2011, Android’s momentum will probably continue in the U.S. after 12.1 million shipments last quarter. But the end of Apple’s exclusive agreement with AT&T means Verizon will shift its attention to iOS while there will be new opportunities for Android devices on AT&T.

Confronted with declining market share, Nokia’s chief executive Stephen Elop signaled last week that the company may consider joining a competitive ecosystem. It’s possible the Finnish handset maker might turn to Android or Windows Phone 7 to recapture momentum.

Android’s rapid growth is attracting the eye of thousands of mobile developers, but they still have many questions about how Google’s forthcoming in-app payments system will work, and how they deal with the plethora of devices, versions and now stores. Eric Chu, who leads developer relations for Android, shared a few details with us about the platform’s direction last week and pledged to bring in-app payments within the next two months.