As if officially confirming Steve Jobs’ claim that Apple has overtaken RIM, IDC has just published their Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. True enough, amidst the growing mobile phone market, IDC’s figures show that Apple is now the no. 4 mobile phone vendor, with RIM following it closely at no. 5. Nokia continues to be at no. 1, followed by Samsung and LG. Apple’s 3Q shipment of iPhones is at 14.1 million, from 7.4 million in the same quarter in 2009. RIM, on the other hand, managed to sell 12.4 million units from last year’s 8.5 million.

Apple issued a brief statement today announcing that they’re responding to Nokia’s lawsuit by launching one of their own. Fight fire with fire, I (and, apparently, Apple) always say. Apple is claiming in the countersuit that Nokia is infringing upon 13 Apple patents. The company claimed back in October that it planned to “vigorously” defend itself against Nokia’s lawsuit, and I guess this is one way to do that.

Two stories have come out recently regarding Verizon Wireless, the nation’s largest cell phone provider, and their relationship (or lack of) with the iPhone. The first story is that Nokia and Verizon are going to work together on a new 4G device for its upcoming LTE network. More telling is a story from the Boy Genius Report where a customer who left Verizon was asked several questions; and a number of the multiple-choice answers involved the iPhone.

Nokia recently announced their next big thing, the Nokia N97. This phone and internet device with a 3.5″ touch display and full QWERTY keyboard is another company’s attempt to oust the iPhone in the mobile touch screen device market. And, like the Blackberry Storm, this one isn’t going to be a successful iPhone killer. Simply put, Apple has not only created the touch screen market for mobile phones, they now dominate it. Although companies like RIM and Nokia can try to beat out Apple, I don’t see it happening anytime soon, that’s for sure. Read on to find out why.

Steve Ballmer, already famous for his dancing skills, has pulled off a spectacular 180º pirouette in his position on Apple. In an email earlier this summer, Ballmer addressed Apple’s rising threat to Microsoft’s operating system dominance, telling staffers Apple’s success was:

Because they [Apple] are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience. Today, we’re changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises. We’ll do the same with phones—providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences.

In the interview with Ann Winblad, a partner at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Ballmer neatly about-faced this position. Discussing current market-leader Nokia’s 30% position, Ballmer stated, “If you want to reach more than that, you have to separate the hardware and software in the platform.” This, obviously, is the same model that propelled Microsoft to dominance in desktop computing with the Windows OS, and it is exactly what Ballmer vowed to Think Different about in his memo!

In a lawsuit filed by Typhoon Touch last Monday, Apple, Inc.—along with ten other companies—were implicated in the proceedings. The lawsuit was focused on Dell, but Apple, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Lenovo, Panasonic, HTC, Palm, Samsung, Nokia, and LG were all mentioned. The lawsuit involves patents filed by Typhoon Touch, specifically numbers 5,379,057 (“Touch Screen and Computer more »

According to BusinessWeek and the Boston Consulting Group, Apple is on the top of the heap when it comes to innovation. “The publication states the list is based on companies who nurture cultures that value creative people in good economic times and bad, as well as those that develop a diversified stock portfolio, and display more »