Asymco has posted various graphs showing growth of units, revenue and profit share of iPhone in mobile phone market. Horace Dediu posted:

Apple reached 75% of profit share, nearly 40% of revenue share and 9% of units share.

Apple and Samsung combined for about 91% of profits with RIM third at 3.7%, HTC fourth at 3.0% and Nokia last at 1.8% of a $15 billion total for the quarter.

In terms of revenues, Apple had 39% to Samsung’s 25%. Third was Nokia with 12.6% and fourth RIM at 8%. HTC only managed 5.5%, Motorola 4%, LG 3.3% and Sony Ericsson 2.7%.

Check out all the interesting graphs and analysis on Asymco’s website.

Pentax today announced new Pentax K-01 mirrorless interchangeable lens camera designed by Marc Newson, who is widely known for designing a wide range of objects from furniture and household products to bicycles, cars, aircraft and yachts.

According to Pentax, along with the exterior design Marc Newson’s touch is also evident in a new smc PENTAX-DA 40mm F2.8 XS interchangeable lens. As the world's thinnest interchangeable lens, the new 40mm combines with the PENTAX K-01 camera body to deliver a unique ILC system that is perfect for photographers who are as keen on design as they are on performance.

Key features for the Pentax K-01 are:

• Durable machined aluminum frame under a stylish black, white, or yellow exterior.
• PENTAX mirrorless body design is compatible with 25+ million PENTAX K-mount lenses spanning decades.
• Large 16 megapixel APS-C sized CMOS image sensor with low noise image capture and multiple aspect ratios.
• Bright, high-resolution 3-inch LCD with 920,000 dots.
• Full HD 1080p video capture at 30 FPS with h.264 compression (60 FPS at 720p) features outstanding video capture flexibility.
• Sensor-shift PENTAX Shake and Dust Reduction system is compatible with every mounted PENTAX lens.
• Fast 6 FPS burst mode is ideal for fast-action photography.
• Flexible ISO range of 100-25600 ensures gorgeous noise-free imaging in any lighting condition.
• Focus peaking mode provides fast and accurate manual focusing for critical focus applications.

Pentax K-01 is available in black, white and Newson’s signature yellow colors, priced $749.95 (body only) and $899.95 (with DA 40mm XS kit lens). The camera will ship in March 2012 and will come in Marc Newson designed packaging with the Marc Newson designed strap. Check out Marc Newson’s interview about K-01 below.

In a follow-up to their previous report that iPad 3 launch event will be in February, Macotakara now says that the report was only half true. Basically Apple will have a February event but it won’t be an iPad event and the iPad event will be in March. According to Macotakara, February Apple event will be a “Strange” one and there will be no product announcement. Danbo posted on Macotakara:

I reported that Apple was going to hold Special Event in early February according to Asian supplier and source from united states, but this report told a half-side of truth. Apple will hold "Strange" event at February instead of Special Event.

Special Event for new products will be hold in early March and will release products during March as usual.

We have been hearing that Apple is planning the iPad event for either the last week of February or first half of March. But we haven’t heard of any unusual or strange Apple event happening before that.

In other Apple related news, Daiwa Securities is reporting that Apple will launch iPhone 5 at Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) in June 2012. Daiwa Securities also says that Apple will utilize glass to glass touch screen panel technology in iPhone 5.

As we have written before our sources also say that Apple will come back to their regular schedule of summer iPhone launch this year and WWDC will be a good place to do that as they have always done iPhone announcements there.

Piper Jaffray’s analyst Gene Munster says that major TV component suppliers are in talks with Apple regarding various capabilities of their television display components. He believes that prototypes of Apple television are in works and Apple is targeting a late 2012 launch. Munster offered three scenarios that Apple could use to offer a unique TV experience:

• Apple could simply enable its television to manage a consumer's live TV service from within a unified interface much like TiVo does, partnering with MSOs [i.e. the cable companies]. As Apple was developing the iPhone many investors expected the company to become an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator). Instead, the company partnered with AT&T (then Cingular) to bring the iPhone to market in the U.S. Similarly, Apple could choose to avoid the cost and effort of entering the live TV services business and simply partner with MSOs to deliver live, cable TV to the Apple Television. While this would be the easiest and most likely option, it would also be the least revolutionary. Technically, this option would function much like TiVo does today: partnering with MSOs and offering a unified DVR/guidance software interface to make search and discovery easier for the viewer. In some ways, a connected TV's software is the biggest differentiator that Apple can bring to the table, so this option could still result in a new and fresh product for the television market. Apple could also supplement this with its iTunes Movie rental and purchase service directly on the television.
• Apple could offer access to live TV from network channels in combination with other web-based video services. One middle-of-the-road option could be for Apple to deliver live TV from network channels (either over the internet or over the air) to the Apple Television. Apple could then leverage a new App Store for the Apple Television to supplement the basic live TV features with Netflix, Hulu Plus, or any content provider that chooses to build an app for the television. In this instance, Apple would also likely continue to offer its iTunes movie and TV content through the iTunes store to the Apple Television.
• Apple could offer monthly subscriptions, on an a-la-carte basis, for live TV packages with content from content providers. Clearly the most challenging option, if Apple truly wanted to control the entire television experience - which, again, the company chose not to do when entering the smartphone market - it would have to become a virtual MSO (Multiple Services Provider) and offer monthly subscriptions for live TV services. Such an offering would be unlikely given existing licensing arrangements between content providers and service providers as well as the fact that it lies outside of Apple's core competencies, even in media. That said, it would enable the company to control the entire experience and possibly deliver new features that are currently unavailable through existing television service providers and CE device makers.

Munster has been claiming that Apple will launch a television for past 6-7 years, so we should take his 2012 launch date and the three scenarios with a big grain of salt. We all know from Steve’s biography that Apple has been working on Apple television for past few years and Steve even claimed that he has cracked the simplest user interface for TV. However, we still don’t have any concrete information about when Apple actually plans to launch the television or what the specifications will be. [Via Fortune]

BGR has got there hands on images showing data from debugging tool iBoot that reveals details about the upcoming iPad 3 including information about the new processor, wireless antennas and model numbers. Jonathan Geller wrote on BGR:

A source claiming to be in possession of an iPad 3 prototype provided BGR with images containing details about Apple’s highly anticipated third-generation tablet. From the data in the photos, which contain the output from an iPad 3 using a development and debug tool called iBoot, we can infer plenty of information about the upcoming iPad 3. For starters, the model numbers are J1 and J2 (iPad3,1 and iPad3,2), and while DigiTimes reported this a few weeks ago, these two models are not different devices, just a single iPad available in two versions — one with Wi-Fi only and one with Wi-Fi and embedded GSM/CDMA/LTE for all carriers. Also included in the photos is, for the first time, confirmation of which processor Apple will be using in the iPad 3: an A6 processor with model number S5L8945X. For reference, the Apple A4 model was S5L8930X and the A5 is S5L8940X. The new processor will also apparently be a quad-core model, making the upcoming iPad 3 the fastest iOS device ever, we have been told.

BGR has few more pictures on their website showing various information about the upcoming iPad 3.

A recent report from Strategy Analytics noted “Android captured a record 39 percent share of global tablet shipments in Q4 2011, rising from 29 percent a year earlier. Global Android tablet shipments tripled annually to 10.5 million units.” However, that 10.5 million number was reached by adding Amazon’s newly released Kindle Fire, which in our opinion is not an Android tablet.

Yes, Kindle Fire is based on Android OS, but its neither open as defined by Google, nor Amazon is part of Open Handset Alliance, a group of 84 companies including Google that have come together to accelerate Android development. Basically, Kindle Fire is a closed platform with its own Amazon Appstore and development of the platform is completely dependant on Amazon. For example, both Mac OS X and iOS are based on FreeBSD (a open source OS), but we don’t call those OSes open source or part of the FreeBSD group.

So, if we don’t include Kindle Fire in Android tablet market share, then what was the growth like for Android tablets? According to analyst Jordan Rohan, Kindle Fire shipment rose to 6 million units in Q4 2011 dominating the low-end tablet market. Now taking these 6 million Kindle Fire units out of 10.5 million Android tablets shipped, the number of Android tablet shipped in Q4 2011 drops to just 4.5 million, which is 16.7% of tablet market.

This basically means Android tablet market share dropped from 29% in Q4 2010 to 16.8% in Q4 2011. Even if, we consider lower Kindle Fire sales of about 4 million units as suggested by many analysts, we still see that Android tablet market share dropped by 5% to 24% in Q4 2011.

The numbers do look bad for Android tablet market, however they look worst if we consider that there were over 80 Android tablet models available from different manufacturers during past holiday season. And many of them were available on discount (priced below $300) to compete with the iPad.

Researchers at IBM have made the first experimental nanotube transistor that is smaller than 10 nanometers. It is the smallest carbon nanotube transistor ever made at 9nm and according to researchers it performs better than any other transistor has at this size. Silicon is currently used for making transistor used in microchips. As we go down in processor size silicon is reaching its physical limits and many scientists believe that using silicon for transistor below 10nm will cause lot of problems.

To solve this problem researchers are looking at carbon nanotube, as it offers superior electrical properties and would make for better transistors at ever-tinier sizes than 10nm. The IBM group demonstrated that its nine-nanometer nanotube transistor had much lower power consumption than other transistors the same size. And it can carry more current than comparable silicon devices, which means a better signal.

"If nanotubes can't go much further than silicon, then working on them is a waste of time," says IBM researcher Aaron Franklin. "We've made nanotube transistors at aggressively scaled dimensions, and shown they are tremendously better than the best silicon devices."

"The results really highlight the value of nanotubes in the most sophisticated type of transistors," says John Rogers, professor of materials science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "They suggest, very clearly, that nanotubes have the potential for doing something truly competitive with, or complementary to, silicon."

According to researchers, the nanotube transistor outperform the best competing silicon devices with more than four times the diameter-normalized current density (2.41 mA/μm) at a low operating voltage of 0.5 V. The nanotube transistor exhibits an impressively small inverse subthreshold slope of 94 mV/decade—nearly half of the value expected from a previous theoretical study.

Even though IBM was able to develop and demonstrate 9nm nanotube transistor, the technology is far from ready for manufacturing. And it might take several years before we actually see a processor based in transistors made with carbon nanotubes. [Via Technology Review]

Symantec has discovered multiple publisher IDs on the Android Market that are being used to distribute malware named ‘Android.Counterclank”. This is a minor modification of Android.Tonclank, a bot-like threat that can receive commands to carry out certain actions, as well as steal information from the device. Symantec has published a list of 13 applications that have this malware. Symantec posted:

For each of these malicious applications, the malicious code has been grafted on to the main application in a package called “apperhand”. When the package is executed, a service with the same name may be seen running on a compromised device. Another sign of an infection is the presence of the Search icon above on the home screen.

The 13 apps are Counter Elite Force, Counter Strike Ground Force, Counter Strike Hit Enemy, Heart Live Wallpaper, Hit Counter Terrorist, Stripper Touch girl, Balloon Game, Deal & Be Millionaire, Wild Man, Pretty women lingerie puzzle, Sexy Girls Photo Game, Sexy Girls Puzzle and Sexy Women Puzzle.

According to Symantec, the combined download figures of all the malicious apps indicate that Android.Counterclank has the highest distribution of any malware identified so far this year.

Pentax today announced Optio VS20 compact camera featuring a high-power 20X optical zoom lens (28-560mm equivalent) and a second vertical shutter-release button with zoom lever for effortless portrait oriented shooting. A vertical shutter release and zoom lever give the Optio VS20 a unique feature typically found on DSLR cameras, which lends itself to added stability at long optical zooms, as well as comfortable grip for such images as portraits, high rise buildings and architecture, monuments, trees, sports action, and panorama frames. The Optio VS20 even includes a vertical tripod socket for outstanding stabilized vertical support. A new Handheld Night Snap mode also is introduced to capture beautiful images with minimal blur and noise even in low light settings.

• The Optio VS20 body is built in a compact digital form factor, and offers several other advanced functions and user-friendly features including:
• A 16.0 megapixel CCD sensor with mechanical sensor shift Shake Reduction for stabilized, blur-free images even in low lighting
• A large 3.0-inch, wide view (approx. 170 degrees) LCD for easy image capture and review
• Auto Picture mode that automatically chooses the best camera settings
• Triple Shake Reduction (SR) for sharp, blur-free images and video
• Other new scene modes including Fish-eye, Sketch modes and a Stretch filter for more creative options

The Pentax Optio VS20 will be available in noble black and brilliant white for $249.95 in February 2012.

9to5mac is reporting that their reliable source at Foxconn in China has informed them the iPhone 5 is ready for production. There are various sample devices floating around at Foxconn with following features:

• 4+ inch display (made by LG on at least one of them)
• No teardrop-shaped devices as were rumored in the lead up to the iPhone 4S. Samples so far have been symmetrical in thickness. Also longer/wider.
• None of the sample devices have the iPhone 4/4S form factor
• None of the devices are final versions

According to 9to5mac, if we follow past iPhone production patterns that go from prototypes to final product in about five months, “it would appear that Apple is back on its new iPhone launch for Summer/WWDC pattern that it maintained until last year.”

We have also heard from various sources that Apple will again start following the summer iPhone launch schedule with the upcoming iPhone 5. However, we have heard different things about design of next generation iPhone.