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Gamification, according to Wikipedia, is " is the use of game play mechanics for non-game consumer technology applications." Our own Audrey Watters defined game mechanics as a "rule-based system for scoring, setting goals, and allocating rewards." A related idea is the "Gamepocalypse," Jesse Schell's hypothetical future in which everything is gamified. Wikipedia emphasizes consumer applications, but the enterprise is not exempted from the gamification trend. But will it actually make work any better?

According to a recent report from global hiring marketplace oDesk, demand for developers with Android skills is up 710% in October 2010 versus October 2009. The increased demand is not surprising, given the mobile operating system's rapid climb over the past 12+ months, now reaching its new status as the number one mobile OS in the United States and number two worldwide, as of Q3 2010.

Social networking will be a more popular communication mechanism than either voice or SMS, according to 31 global mobile operators cited in a new report from Airwide Solutions. The report, commissioned by Airwide and performed by research agency mobileSQUARED, asked operators across Europe, North America and in the Asia-Pacific regions what they believed would be the most popular applications and the top forms of communication in 2015.

We weren't able to attend Enterprise 2.0 Santa Clara this week, but we were able to learn a lot anyway. Sometimes it's better to watch things from a distance. Here's a quick overview of the trends and announcements that came out of the events, including: a growing interest in enterprise 2.0 from HR, the Launch Pad winner, vendor aggression and good old fashioned semantic argument.

According to a study of over 16,000 mobile YouTube users conducted by Google, 75% of respondents said that mobile is their primary way of accessing YouTube. At first glance, that figure may come as no surprise - after all, how shocking is at that a survey of mobile users finds that they watch a lot of YouTube Mobile? However, it's actually a rather telling number.

For some of us, watching YouTube on a mobile device is an additional way to watch video, not the primary way. But as it turns out, for a large majority of mobile video users, it's completely the opposite.

The mobile landscape is evolving rapidly with no signs of slowing down. For those who can quickly adapt to the ongoing disruption caused by mobile, tremendous opportunity awaits.

At this morning's first panel at the Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco, the topic was the evolution of the mobile industry - that is, both where we are now and what's happening next.

Who will control mobile advertising - Apple, Google an assortment of small time players, each with their own slivers of the market? How should ads be targeted? What new advertising trends are we seeing now?

These topics are more were discussed this afternoon at the Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco by top executives from mobile ad firms and Jason Spero, Director of Google Mobile.

Here at the Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco, Nokia Siemmens Networks CTO Hossein Moiin kicked off the event with a keynote speech focused on the future of the mobile industry. It's a fitting start to a conference dedicated to all things mobile, and, as Moiin says, this "open mobile revolution has just begun."

Mobile advertising firm Millennial Media has just released its comprehensive report on the state of the mobile application industry, which includes a look at growth trends, platform diversification, platform popularity, 2011 trends and more.

According to the report's findings, developers plan to further diversify their app offerings next year and - here's some good news! - they expect to see "significant growth" in app revenue over the course of 2011.

Research firm Canalys released new numbers today on the mobile smartphone market, and they are impressive, especially when it comes to Android. According to the latest report, the Android platform has grown 1,309% since Q3 2009, going from 1.4 million handsets to 20.0 million by the close of Q3 2010. Android is now eating away at Nokia's top spot among smartphone OS vendors worldwide, where Nokia still retains a 33% share compared with Android's quarter of the market.

However, in the U.S., it's Android that's number one, with 43.6% market share lead.