This week, smartphone giants Nokia, Motorola Mobility and Samsung posted fourth-quarter earnings that, each in its own way, reflected the looming presence -- and successes -- of Apple.

Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha noted that the Android-booster had made strides in the smartphone space during the quarter, but that sales were nonetheless affected by Verizon's announcement that it would soon offer an iPhone 4. Meanwhile, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, despite announcing that the world's leading phone maker had managed to increase smartphone sales by 38 percent during the quarter, conceded that Nokia still hasn't created a smartphone that can compete with the appeal of the iPhone or top-selling Android devices.

"Nokia faces some significant challenges in our competitiveness and our execution," Elop said a Jan. 27 statement. "In short, the industry changed, and now it's time for Nokia to change faster."

Samsung, however, had a different message for investors. "Despite the difficult business environment, we achieved record-high results both in terms of sales and operating profit in 2010," Robert Yi, vice president and head of Samsung Electronics' investor relations team, said in a Jan. 28 statement.

The Korean device maker, following cues from Apple, introduced a line of Galaxy S smartphones during 2010 that saw sales of 10 million units. The company also unveiled the successful Galaxy Tab, its answer to the Apple iPad. Samsung's overall mobile device sales reached 80.7 million units during the quarter, bringing year-end totals to 280 million units, thus "outperforming the overall market," Samsung noted in its earnings statement.

For more, read the eWeek article: Samsung May Be Apple's First Real Mobile Competitor: Analysts.

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