According to the latest report from the International Data Corporation, Samsung has ousted both Apple and Nokia to aquire the top spot in both smartphone and total mobile phone shipments for the first quarter of 2012. This marks the first time since the inception of IDC’s Mobile Phone Tracker that Nokia did not lead the global market in total mobile phone shipments. That’s quite a testament to Samsung’s tremendous growth over the past year, which according to the IDC, was nearly triple in the smartphone category.

I seriously can’t praise Amazon Wireless enough for the amazing deals they offer on smartphones. Anyone looking to purchase a phone should really consider checking out Amazon Wireless before making any decisions because they really do offer the best prices. In fact, throughout the month of March, every Sprint 4G smartphone is on sale for a penny. Not only can you get a new phone for a penny but if you purchase before March 19th, Amazon will also waive the activation fee (a $36 deal).

Mobile World Congress is undoubtebly one of the premiere places to see smartphones, but how about 3,500 smartphones fashioned to metal rods to create a 19-foot tall mythical winged horse? Well, that’s exactly what you’ll find guarding this year’s MWC thanks to Huawei and London’s Machine Shop.

Sprint has announced the first of many LTE smartphone offerings to compliment their new 4G LTE network. The first to make its debut, is none other than the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. We can’t say we didn’t see this one coming, especially after its accidental leak in an online ad. They didn’t release a full on spec list of the Sprint Galaxy Nexus but it does appear to be a smaller 16GB model and will include Google Wallet (something Verizon felt the need to leave out). Along with the Galaxy Nexus tease comes the announcement of another LTE smartphone for Sprint, the LG Viper.

Geoff Livingston/Flickr

Research giant Gartner had a quick lesson for Apple: don’t let off the iPhone accelerator — if you do, you’ll pay. The latest price for delaying until October its new smartphone: iOS dipped to 15 percent of sales while Android-based handsets skyrocketed to 52.5 percent of the market.