You are walking out of your favorite mobile phone retailer's shop, with the late-model, named-after-a-fruit or named-after-a-robot smartphone you have been lusting after safe in your arms' embrace. Welcome to the world of smartphone users.

Suddenly, you are one "cool" dude or gal. Never mind those haters, they probably can't afford a handset like yours anyway. So, in your new world, they have no right to bash you or your smartphone choice.

Yes, you are now part of an elite, technology updated subgroup of the human species. And there are only about a billion of you worldwide.

1 Billion Active Smartphones

Strategy Analytics, one of the ever lengthening list of market research firms, recently announced that the number of smartphones in use worldwide crossed the 1-billion mark for the first time in the third quarter of 2012. The research firm also forecast the number will double by 2015.

According to the research firm, the number of smartphones in use rose 47 percent to 1.038 billion during the quarter. This means one in every seven of the planet's human residents own a smartphone.

In 2011, Bloomberg Industries estimated the smartphone market to be worth $219 billion.

Nokia's Pain Continues

Nokia's investors, some analysts advise, should prepare themselves for more bad news from the struggling mobile phone maker. The world's erstwhile leading handset vendor is likely to report more losses in sales and market share.

But not all is lost. The company's lineup of Windows Phone 8-enabled smartphones are set to be commercially available when Microsoft finally launches its next-generation mobile OS, along with the platform's sibling edition for the desktop, notebook, and tablet computers.

After the "false start" with the dead-end mobile platform, Windows Phone 7 and its later variants, Nokia might finally see its fortune turning for the better with the stronger and more capable Windows smartphone platform.

Now, it's all up to consumers whether they would love or hate Nokia's next-generation Lumia smartphones.

Underage Interns = Child Labor

Foxconn, Apple's main device maker in China, was recently left with no choice but to admit that it employed interns, some of them as young as 14 years. The manufacturer from Taiwan confirmed previous reports that some students who participated in its "summer internship program" were below China's minimum legal age for working (16 years old).

Best known for contract-manufacturing iPhones and iPads for the world's coolest tech company, Foxconn has been accused of poor working conditions previously. The company also makes devices for Microsoft and HP.

The company announced an internal investigation following Chinese media reports about the underage workers, I mean, interns.

So, on to our poor-taste joke of the day: Interns are PR problems for an Asian OEM and a certain US president.

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