As you grow older, you realize that not everything turns out the way you want it to. Of course, this happens much more infrequently among the filthy rich than it does to us who are not born with the proverbial silver spoon.

Still, with all things considered, it would be safe to assume that frustration is a universal experience. This does not mean, however, that we all experience or look at frustration in the same way. Some of us more easily find themselves at peace despite these less-than-desirable life outcomes.

Sitting idly by and doing nothing, for some of us, would never suffice when things do not go as well as planned. In varying degrees, people would take steps to overturn these fates that they perceive they do not deserve.

Nokia Changes

By the time you read this, Nokia would have announced its choice, and finally cleared the air about rumors of the Finnish mobile vendor's plan to ally itself with either the Android or Windows Phone 7 camp. The company, which for decades has been Finland's most recognizable brand, has seen its share of the smartphone market decline at an alarming rate.

In the United States, for example, Nokia's share of the market fell from 28 percent to an embarrassing single-digit hole.

This corner hopes that whatever its decision had turned out to be, the world's leading mobile phone vendor recovers its footing.

Mobile Sales Explosion

IT market research firm Gartner said that sales of mobile devices grew 32 percent in 2010. In fact, smartphones even outsold personal computers for the first time in the fourth quarter. Last year, about 1.6 billion mobile phones were sold.

Smartphone sales rose 72.1 percent over 2009 figures, accounting for 19 percent of total sales of mobile devices.

Meanwhile, International Data Corp. (IDC), my favorite market research firm, reported that vendors shipped 100.9 million smartphones in the fourth quarter – an increase of 87.2 percent from the same quarter of 2009.

No wonder we are running out of Internet addresses.

Android Outscores Apple

Data from marketing research firm ComScore shows that Android outsprinted Apple's mobile operating system in the fourth quarter to grab 28.7 percent of the U.S. smartphone market. The Cupertino company, for its part, captured 25 percent of the market. This is a reversal of the companies' roles in the third quarter, when Android had 21.4 percent and Apple took 24.3 percent of the market.

Research In Motion, the maker of BlackBerry devices, retained the top spot with 31.6 percent. Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, released in October 2010, landed at fourth with 8.4 percent.

That's all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.