Apple’s App Store has been a phenomenal success, despite predictions when it was first released that it would not take off. Now that new and innovative applications are regularly appearing and the formula has been agreed as an out-and-out success, everyone else is once again playing catch-up with the pioneering company.

It has been no surprise to hear that Microsoft, Nokia, Orange and O2 are all launching their own app stores to try to rival the might of Apple’s original version. After all, the mobile market is having quite a tough time of it lately, and any income-generating idea was always going to catch on quickly.

The new app stores to be released are the Ovi store from Nokia, which will arrive in May, Windows Marketplace from Microsoft, Orange Portal from Orange and Litmus from O2.

Of course, all of these are claiming to be developing upon the original idea of the App Store rather than simply providing cheap imitations. James Parton, who is the head of O2 Litmus, said that its store will be a “completely consumer-led series of useful applications” rather than just another App Store, and Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, even claimed that its store will take mobiles to “another level”.

Apple’s App Store was launched in July 2008 and has already seen 500 million downloads, which will earn Apple a predicted £556 million in the first year, and although this year will see a huge surge in the number of App Stores out there, we will have to wait and see if any other company can match the success of the original.

The battle for the cheapest mobile phone contract to beat the credit crunch is well and truly on. Until recently it was phone company 3 that could boast the cheapest contract on the market with its £9-per-month offering. But Virgin has just undercut 3 by 50p to provide customers with an unbeatable £8.50-a-month tariff.

Virgin has become known for its ultra-cheap deals of late, such as its 30p-per-day offer for mobile browsing for anyone with a Virgin handset. But if you suspect this contract can't provide customers with a decent service for their cash, you are wrong. Because for your £8.50 a month, you will be receiving 100 minutes to any network as well as 100 free texts.

However, there is a slight catch in that only a handful of handsets will be available at this low price. But these are not bottom-end handsets that Virgin is simply hoping to offload onto its lowest-paying customers. Instead, the LG KC550, the Nokia 3120 and the Samsung G600 are among the handsets included in the deal. The LG and the Samsung handsets both include decent 5MP digital cameras which makes for a very good offer indeed.

Graeme Oxby, managing director of Virgin Mobile, said that “as customers are tightening their purse strings” this deal “will allow people to stay in touch without the added worry of a hefty phone bill.”

Anyone wanting to take advantage of this moneysaving mobile offer will have to sign up to an 18-month contract. Somehow that doesn't seem too much to ask for such a low price deal!

Motorola has been having a busy time of it lately. The main news is that the company has just announced that it is testing the next generation of mobile broadband, being dubbed 4G, which is also going by the name of Long Term Evolution, or LTE.

The trials have been taking place in Swindon, and Motorola has not been shy to make claims that it could see speeds of up to 100Mbps.

If this is the case then it will signify a huge shift in the way that mobile broadband is used, with users no longer having to look at scaled-down versions of websites on their handsets.

Wireless Internet on our phones has proved hugely popular, especially with the new and increasingly-sophisticated smartphones that are appearing on the market all the time.

Joe Cozzolino, the senior vice-president of Motorola Home and Networks Mobility, said that “Motorola is at the forefront of 4G development”, and if it pulls it off then most people will agree with him. Although there has been no release date announced, everyone is hoping that it won’t be far away.

However, reports are now coming out that the recent bad weather to hit the country has led to a halt in testing, which will be hugely frustrating for Motorola, especially as the company is in a battle with WiMax, the follow on from Wi-Fi, to provide the standard next generation of mobile broadband.

On top of this, the company recently posted its fourth quarter results, which painted a dismal picture. It only managed to sell 19.2 million handsets, 6.2 million fewer than in the third quarter and a massive 16.3 million fewer than the same quarter in 2007. This led to a net loss of $3.6 billion, and the company will be hoping that its 4G tests can dig it out of this hole.

Apple has surprised many experts involved in the world of mobile phones by taking a 1.1% market share of the global mobile phone market. Apple managed to shift over thirteen million iPhone 3G models during 2008, causing its market share percentage to grow from 0.3% to 1.1% in the space of just one year. Cynics may question the significance of this news, particularly when viewed in the light of other mobile phone company percentages. For instance, Nokia has a 38.6% market share, making it the current leader in the market by a long way.

However, it is, in reality, a remarkable step for Apple. The company’s market share has allowed it to establish itself as a close rival to Sharp. Furthermore, Kyocera’s percentage is currently at 1.4% and RIM’s is at 1.9%. The gap between RIM and the next company on the list of the top ten mobile phone vendors is relatively large. Sony Ericsson, the fifth largest vendor, has a market share of 8%. Motorola has an 8.3% market share but this figure is declining.

The achievement is even more remarkable given the public response to Steve Jobs’ revelation in 2007 that the company had a desire to reach a share of 1%. Many experts found this goal laughable and dismissed the attempts of Apple to achieve its ambitions. The good news for the company is that 2009 is expected to be a relatively strong year, despite the recession. This is primarily due to the rise in popularity of the smart phone.

To celebrate its fifth anniversary, Orange has upped the ante by releasing a new marketing campaign for its hugely popular Orange Wednesdays 2-for-1 deal at the cinema, by which Orange customers simply show a code on their phones at the cinema and get 2-for-1 entry.

The campaign is to be shown throughout February on our screens, as well as on billboards, the radio and at the cinema, and will cost the mobile provider a massive £7 million.

The advert depicts the Wicked Witch of the West making a trip to the cinema with a friend. This humorous campaign is, according to Justin Billingsley, Orange director of brand marketing, about reminding Orange's customers about Orange Wednesdays and ensuring that they “take advantage of this great deal”.

However, on top of this, the 2-for-1 deal has gone one step further so that customers can get even more for their money. Orange has now signed up to a deal with Pizza Express for the next six months that will allow customers to get two pizzas for the price of one.

Orange Wednesdays was a brilliant deal on its own, but this just adds to the appeal. Will it see Orange win over even more customers? Well, in these cash-strapped times it is certainly appealing to the right market. Everyone still wants to go out and enjoy themselves, and by making it a bit cheaper it could well prove a positive move for the company.

The only problem with the Pizza Express deal is that you need to print out a voucher from your computer before you can take advantage of it, rather than simply showing the code on your phone at the counter, but it still likely to prove hugely popular.

Think of Porsche and you will instantly think of fast and stylish cars, which, sadly for most of us, are way out of our price range, particularly given the recent economic downturn. However, the association between Porsche and the motoring market may become less exclusive as the company is now planning on entering another model into the tough and competitive mobile phone market. The company has designed and launched a new model which is aiming to bring both style and prestige to those customers accustomed to the quality usually offered by Porsche cars.

The P’9522 has been built with aluminium and high-tech glass which is scratchproof. Whilst these features may sound impressive, the phone’s real selling point is its ability to recognise its user’s fingerprint. Once this fingerprint has been recognised, the phone subsequently responds to touch. This means that the phone will be rendered useless if it is stolen. Porsche has also been careful to include the features which mobile phone users have come to expect from top mobile models. As such, the P’9522 comes complete with an MP3 player and Wi-Fi capabilities. It also features an impressive camera.

If this all sounds tempting and you wish to make a purchase, you should be aware that they are not on sale everywhere. At the moment, the model is only on sale in Porsche dealers and certain department stores across the United Kingdom. The phone is likely to be released during the coming months, although an exact launch date has not yet been decided upon.

An iPhone rival has just been released by Nokia that is set to prove a popular – and cheaper – alternative to the all-powerful Apple super product. The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic has been a while in the making, having been initially announced last October, but now it has finally made its entrance on the world stage, where Nokia is hoping that it will help to dig it out of the financial mess that the company finds itself in.

The essential features include 8GB of memory for up to 6,000 songs, a 3.2Mp camera, and an FM radio. The 3.2 inch touch-screen also comes complete with a media bar to provide instant access to the music library, and a nifty feature called the ‘contacts bar’, which allows the user to instantly find all of the text, phone and email information between themselves and up to four top contacts. It also has a video camera, a feature that the iPhone is lacking.

It is being billed very much as a phone for music lovers, and excited fans had queued outside the Regent Street store to ensure they were the first to get their hands on it, although it didn’t go on general sale until the 30th of January. You should expect to pay £249 on a pay-as-you-go deal, but you’ll probably find it going free on numerous contract deals.

However, the release of the new phone almost directly coincided with the news that Nokia had seen a steep drop in profits in the fourth quarter of 2008, and was expecting a 10% drop in market volumes in 2009, which led to large slumps in the company’s share prices. Will its new super-product be able to turn the tide? Nokia is certainly hoping so.

In these tough economic times, with the recession biting and employment figures being slashed across the country, what better time to release a new mobile phone with a price tag of £1.6 million? It may sound unbelievable (and unbelievably tactless), but this is exactly what has just happened.

Peter Aloisson is the man who has brought the very special version of the iPhone 3G to the market. A jeweller from Austria, he has a history of controversy after making it his hobby to produce diamond-encrusted phones.

1998 saw the release of his first design, and last year he also hit the headlines with his $1.3 million diamond-encrusted smart phone for JSC Ancort, a Russian encryption company.

This very special version of the iPhone includes 138 cut diamonds set into a line of white gold which runs around the outside of the phone. It is named the ‘King’s Button’ in reference to the most amazing feature of the phone – a 6.6-carat diamond in the place of the ‘Home’ button.

So is anyone going to buy it? The sad fact is that, yes, someone probably will. There is a category known as the ‘super rich’ who seem to be immune to those pesky recessions, and it will certainly prove a talking point at social gatherings.

The question of whether it is particularly tactful or indeed morally questionable to be walking around with a £1.6 million mobile phone is a different matter. Especially for those of us who still find the normal iPhone just a little bit out of our price range!

If you are one of those people who hate turning off their mobile phone and feel slightly nervous when out of contact for more than ten seconds, you will be excited by the news that British Airways is going to allow passengers to use their phones onboard from this autumn on the all-business class service between London and New York. This new service, which will depart from London City Airport and arrive in JFK in New York, will see passengers able to send and receive texts as well as emails whilst the plane is in the air. Passengers will also be able to surf the web in order to keep up-to-date with the news.

British Airways revealed that the new service is being marketed towards “people in the Square Mile”, who, according to the airline, will be attracted by the new technology. Businessmen and women may be slightly frustrated that British Airways is not offering the ability to make or receive phone calls just yet but this service may be offered if the text messaging service proves to be a success.

However, not all travellers will be excited by the news from British Airways. After all, many people think that it is bad enough having to be subjected to people discussing their personal lives at full volume on the train during the tedious journeys to and from work. A large proportion of travellers enjoy the fact that the plane has thus far been a mobile-free zone and do not want their precious hours of beauty sleep over the Atlantic interrupted by an irritating ringtone.