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It hasn't even been five years since Apple unveiled the first iPhone. The device wasn't the world's first smartphone, but was arguably the most capable and well-designed and Apple's marketing prowess it made it the first must-have gadget of its kind. Soon after came Android, which has powered increasingly impressive devices by a range of manufacturers.

The growth of smartphone adoption and associated mobile technologies has been staggering. As of the end of 2011, the majority of U.S. adults under the age of 35 now own a smartphone. Sixty-two percent of them have downloaded apps (mostly games), and mobile Web usage among these consumers has grown 45% since last year.

While walking through one of the T-Mobile or AT&T or Verizon stores this holiday season, you may be tempted to buy a tablet after looking at the low price tags on some of them. However, before you buy a tablet from your mobile service provider, understand their total cost and see if you even need a tablet with 3G/4G, or if Wi-Fi will suffice. You might be surprised at how much money you can save.

Indeed, according to a new study from NPD/Connected Intelligence, a higher percentage of tablet users are buying Wi-Fi-only tablets.

According to a new study from Forrester Research, 5% of U.S. adults now scan 2D bar codes - including QR codes - with their smartphones, up from 1% in 2010. Compared to consumer adoption, the development of 2D bar code reading software has grown much faster, while business adoption of the codes as a strategy has grown much slower.

"Too few eBusiness professionals use best practices to offer consumers good experiences once they've scanned a bar code," writes author Julie Ask. The study's conclusion is that consumer habits are driven by ubiquity and ease of access; just like with traditional 1D bar codes, consumers will get used to them the more prevalent they are. That means it's up to businesses to use QR codes wisely while not being afraid to keep up with consumers' interest in new technologies.

According to the Google-sponsored research site ourmobileplanet.com, Spain is leading the way on smartphone adoption in Europe. Spanish smartphone penetration has reached 33%, outpacing Great Britain with 30% and France with 27%.

Spaniards are big multi-taskers, too. 50% of Spanish smartphone users actively browse the Web while listening to music, and 35% use the Internet on their smartphone and another device simultaneously. But given how much Spaniards love their smartphones, here's a surprising statistic: Only 10% of Spain's large companies have mobile websites.

The danger with carrying a smartphone in your pocket is that it is essentially a piece of glass held together with metal and plastic with sophisticated electrical innards. Warranties from original equipment manufacturers tend to not cover a phone if it is broken or has water damage. What if you drop your brand new iPhone 4S into a puddle? The glass is going to break and it is going to get water inside. When that happens, you are in trouble like a half-plucked turkey the day before Thanksgiving.

The folks at SquareTrade like to break things. SquareTrade is a third-party device warranty company that basically offers insurance for what Apple or the other OEMs will not cover in warranties. The company posted a video positing a Samsung Galaxy S II against an iPhone 4S. The results are not for the fanboy faint of heart.

According to new data from comScore, 6.8% of Web traffic in the U.S. comes from "non-computer" devices such as smartphones and tablets. This is an increase from 6.2% in the previous quarter.

Phones account for the majority of non-computer traffic. Mobile devices drive 4.4% of total digital traffic, tablets contribute 1.9%, and other non-computer devices send 0.5% of traffic.

If your smartphone fell into the wrong hands right this very moment, imagine the types of information that person would have instant access to.

If you're like me, that unthinkable list includes things like your personal email, work email, Mint.com account, Google Docs, and all of the data you have stored in Evernote and Dropbox. If they were feeling particularly mischievous, they could post embarrassing updates to Facebook and Twitter under my name and avatar, and even publish something wildly inappropriate on ReadWriteWeb.

The market is hungry for today's iPhone launch. Existing iPhone customers are ready to upgrade. Nearly a third of Android users are would consider switching to iPhone, but only 11% of iPhone users would give it up. Sprint is making a big bet to become the third major U.S. carrier.

Apple just announced the iPhone 4S, a significant update to the iPhone's existing design. The iPhone 4 far outshone its predecessors, and a bump to that phone will surely prove popular. More importantly, the iPhone 4S is now a "worldphone." It contains both GSM and CDMA radios, so all carriers can now support the same hardware. Furthermore, the old iPhone 3GS is now free with a contract. But several Android phone manufacturers are neck and neck with Apple, and most of the mobile world doesn't even have a smartphone yet. Amidst the world's many phones, smart and dumb, where does the iPhone stand?

U.S. consumers are still watching TV during the hours traditionally defined as "prime time," but we're also face-to-face with our second -and sometimes third - screens during those hours, according to a tidbit of data released by Flurry.

By layering their data about iOS and Apple data usage on top of a chart from Ad Age showing TV and Web usage, Flurry was able to demonstrate something most us already had a sneaking suspicion of: That mobile app usage peaks in the evening hours, right around the time that TV-watching has historically peaked.

Mobile Roadie, a self-service app development platform for brands and music, launched its system in a crowded but fragmented China platform ecosystem today.

The China mobile application market is characterized by confusion right now. Already-strong local players like Tencent have launched mobile app platforms to sell apps for Android and iOS. But those platforms depend on partnerships with companies in Europe and the United States.

Mobile Roadie is tearing up that formula. It's a Western company that's letting local developers make apps for themselves.