Apple saw the iPhone's market share triple over the past year, capturing 12.9 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, according to a new Gartner analysis.

For the quarter ending September 30, iPhones accounted for 3.4 percent of the market in 2007. That figure was more than 3x higher on the same day in 2008.

Nokia is the leader worldwide in smartphone sales, with 42.4 percent of the market. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion comes in second with 15.9 percent. In North America, Apple is in second place behind RIM, with iPhones accounting for over a quarter of all smartphones.

Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza also noted that this quarter marked the first time iPhone sales exceeded those of Windows Mobile devices; that's pretty astonishing when you consider how many flavors of WM handsets are out there.

[Via Macworld.]

Apple shares were higher by over 11 points in after-hours trading following a very positive Q4 conference call where the company announced a profit of $1.26 per diluted share.

As we noted in our liveblog earlier, Apple posted a profit of $1.14 billion on revenues of $7.9 billion for the quarter. The company also said it had sold 2.6 million Macs, 11 million iPods, and 6.8 million iPhones in the three months ending September 27. It's safe to say we're past the 10 million mark for iPhone unit sales.

Apple's margins for the quarter fell by a tenth of a percent from Q3 to 34.7 percent. During the Q3 conference call, Apple was careful to mention that margins would be lower for the quarter due to a new product announcement. That guidance was out of an abundance of caution, and executives noted that all new product announcements related to that margin guidance have been made. Apple's margins this time a year ago were 1.1 percent lower, at 33.6 percent.

Steve Jobs himself was on the call, a rarity, and he crowed about how Apple sold more handsets than RIM did. He also mentioned Apple's significant cash reserves of $25 billion and lack of debt.

The conference call made no mention of the exclusion of FireWire on new MacBooks, nor any confirmation that the Mac mini line could either be seeing a refresh or end-of-life.

CIO.com confirms rumors that I've been hearing for at least six months: RIM is preparing to release native BlackBerry utilities for Mac users. According to CIO.com's source, who requested anonymity, the software tools are being prepped for the first half of 2009.

This is great news for any BlackBerry user who also happens to be a Mac fanatic. It's hard enough to reconcile using a 'Berry when all your friends and colleagues are on iPhones -- but the desktop software situation can make even the most die-hard CrackBerry fan reconsider his or her mobile device choice.

Right now, there are two ways to connect the BlackBerry with OS X: PocketMac, which is free and just got an update, and The Missing Sync, which is $39.95. Neither option allows you to upgrade your BlackBerry's onboard OS, make backups of your programs or settings, or reliably install software directly onto the device. You can sync your contacts and calendar (but be careful, the wrong step might nuke them), access and transfer photos and music, and charge the BlackBerry, but that's pretty much where the Mac experience ends.

As of right now, the only way a Mac user can actually upgrade the OS on his or her BlackBerry is to use BootCamp or a virtualization program like VMWare Fusion or Parallels. It's the kind of PITA that prevents people like me from hacking around with their phones, unless I have a fully updated VM handy. If you don't have an Intel Mac or you don't have a Windows license -- you've basically got to find someone who does, and borrow their computer.

Thankfully, not only does it look like native Mac tools are FINALLY going to arrive, future OS updates will be done OTA (over the air), putting an end to this sort of nastiness once and for all. Frankly, I can't wait until I can actually manage my BlackBerry without having to run a virtual machine.

Thinking of making the switch? No, not Windows to Mac, Blackberry to iPhone! There's a great list of what you need to know to ensure a smooth transition at Web Worker Daily (WWD). Some of the highlights include the ease of moving applications between home pages and multiple calendar support.

It's not all wine and roses on the Apple end of things, though, and WWD lists the email experience as the Blackberry's domain. It's a very thorough list, and one we'd recommend to the informed consumer looking to ditch the 'berry. Read the full article here.

If your stock ticker symbol is RIMM or PALM, today would have been a good day to stay in bed. The trend noted in this Engadget post from 2 pm ET kept on going through the trading session, with Blackberry-maker Research in Motion losing nearly 8% on the NASDAQ and 7.7% on the Toronto exchange. Palm suffered nearly as badly, with Nokia and Motorola posting much smaller declines. For the homes of the Treo and the Pearl, "Black Tuesday" represented a total loss of market value approaching $2.2 billion dollars. Meanwhile, Apple's one-button bounce on the day was a stunning $6.1 billion.

Seems that Wall Street got Steverino's message loud and clear; he expects to take his 1% of cellphone market share right off the top, and he is definitely playing for keeps.

I'm guessing that this "Sponsored by Blackberry" ad button won't be showing up on any more CNET videos, either.

Thanks Florian!

We told you ages ago that RIM was planning to acquire and then release PocketMac for syncing your Crackberry and your Mac, but somehow we missed the actual release (back in October). Anyway, PocketMac 4.0 is now happily available for download from RIM. Go forth you mobile, email addicted, thumbsore Mac users and rejoice.

Here's another one from the grapevine: an analyst is predicting (read: guessing) that Apple may be partnering with RIM to create some sort of "AppleBerry". The analyst behind this rumor is none other than Peter Misek, who correctly predicted that Intel and RIM would form a partnership last year.

Paul Miller over at TUAW's sibling Engadget squeezes the substance out of the rumor: "with the tight control both RIM and Apple keep on their hardware and software, we can't really imagine this as the happiest of unions." Judging by past hardware collaborations (the not-quite-rocking ROKR being the primary example), we have to agree with this sentiment.

[Via Engadget]

Joining Microsoft in the 'we don't want to make a Mac version of this so let's just give someone else's away' school of thought Research in Motion, the makers of Blackberry, will be offering PocketMac for Blackberry as a free download for their customers sometime in February.

PocketMac began life as a third party application, and now Blackberry is licensing the technology to allow Mac users to get addicted to always on email like our Windows friends.