Thursday 22 April, 2010, might just seem like another day, but for over one billion people in nearly 200 countries, it’s a chance to start something that might make a difference to the state of the planet.

Today is 40 years after the first Earth Day and, say the folks behind the globally organised Official Earth Day 2010 Campaign, the world is in greater peril than ever. And the point of creating and gaining publicity around a special day in the year devoted to the Earth, is to get people of all races and creeds motivated to help create a healthy, prosperous and clean energy economy for today and the future.

Earth Day 2010 is a clarion call for all those millions of people who make personal commitments to sustainability, whether its walking to the office, using less energy at home, or, indeed, mobile phone recycling. And its not just limited to individuals, companies, organisations and governments worldwide can help make a difference.

So don’t forget, whilst you’re thinking of things to help save the world, remember its easy to get cash for mobile phones.

The quarterly mobile phone market research report from Gartner also goes into the progress of the smartphone operating system market and it reveals which one continues to be top dog.

And it remains the Symbian operating system, although its share of the market dropped just over 5% to nearly 47% in 2009.

A Gartner spokesperson said:
“Symbian had become uncompetitive in recent years, but its market share, particularly on Nokia devices, is still strong. If Symbian can use this momentum, it could return to positive growth.”

Breathing down the neck of the Symbian operating system is of course the real powerhouses behind smartphones: Research in Motion’s operating system (which drives the BlackBerrys) and the iPhone operating system. These two gained ground in 2009, with an increase to 20% from 16% for Research In Motion and 8% to 14% for iPhone.

The other slight concern for the Symbian operating system – which is now fully open source - is that it is affected by the weakness of Nokia in the high-end smartphone market.

But things could improve with the impending release of Symbian3, announced at the recent Mobile World Congress 2010, and Symbian4 which will follow shortly afterwards.

The unloved Microsoft Windows Mobile lost market share, falling from nearly 12% to just below 9%. It remains to be seen how the latest reincarnation of the generally unpopular operating system will fair in 2010.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the new kid on the block, the Android operating system, rose nicely from 0.5% to nearly 4%. With it gaining popularity, it will be bound to stay on that sort of course throughout 2010.

The Gartner spokesperson added:
“Looking back at the announcements during Mobile World Congress 2010, we can expect 2010 to retain a strong focus around operating systems, services and applications while hardware takes a back seat. Sales will return to low-double-digit growth, but competition will continue to put a strain on vendors’ margins.”

With Microsoft pushing its new Windows Phone 7 operating system as the one to have, HTC refuse to be left out of the Zen mobile nirvana and have just announced two new Android 2.1 smartphone mobiles equipped with an enhanced HTC Sense.

So hitting the streets will be the HTC Legend and HTC Desire.

As Peter Chou, CEO of HTC puts it:
“At its essence, the mobile phone is the most personal item you have in your possession. HTC Sense was created to magnify your ability to create and define your own unique mobile experience. HTC Legend and HTC Desire take Android to another level in both substance, with HTC Sense, and style, with HTC Legend’s revolutionary crafted aluminium unibody design.”

For anyone still bemused by exactly what HTC Sense is, it’s a user experience, an intuitive way of operating a mobile phone. In other words, making the thing easier to use! And at the heart of making a HTC Sense device easier to use, are the core tenants Make It Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.

To illustrate HTC’s way of thinking, consider their application HTC Friend Stream which, they claim,  seamlessly aggregates all of the phone users, social communication - including Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr - into one organised flow of updates.

Clever, although cynics might just say that the marketing guys are going into overdrive just to describe a fancy filing system.

But enough of HTC Sense, the new Android based HTC phones, Legend and Desire, will undoubtedly be up amongst the top performers. Although maybe the teams that create the names of devices are becoming a tad desperate. Legend might suggest to many that this was a phone to have some years and ago and as for Desire, well, the market already has a large number of products using that descriptor, most of them not usable in this article.

For the record, the Legend appears to stand out because it boasts a continuous surface which is machined from a single aluminium block into a seamless compact frame. Quite why that gives it a greater Sense is beyond this article, but it does also come with a 3.2 inch AMOLED HVGA display.

Now with the Desire, you might expect something really super dooper, and – forgive the crass joke – size obviously does matter here, because with this model, you’ll have 3.7 inches in your hand: to be more precise, a 3.7 inch AMOLED WVGA display.

The big question of course, is does Sense make your phone easier to use? That, of course, comes down to subjective opinions, but if you want to try and make Sense of it all, then HTC Legend will be available in Europe via Vodafone in April. And the Desire won’t be far behind.

So did worldwide mobile phone sales increase in 2009, or was the year a bit flat?

Latest figures from US research house Gartner show that the total number of phones sold worldwide in 2009 was 1.211 billion units, a 0.9% drop from 2008. Most of which one day will end up with the mobile phone recyclers.

On a slightly better note, sales in the fourth quarter of 2009 were actually up 8.3% (340 million units) over the fourth quarter of 2008, so the trend is getting better.

Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner, said:
“The mobile devices market finished on a very positive note, driven by growth in smartphones and low-end devices. Smartphone sales to end users continued their strong growth in the fourth quarter of 2009, totalling 53.8 million units, up 41.1% from the same period in 2008. In 2009, smartphone sales reached 172.4 million units, a 23.8 per cent increase from 2008. In 2009, smartphone-focused vendors like Apple and Research In Motion (RIM) successfully captured market share from other larger device producers, controlling 14.4% and 19.9% of the worldwide smartphone market, respectively.”

Gartner also highlighted the intense competition felt by manufacturers in 2009, not only in growing markets such as China and India, but also in the mature markets. But, Gartner reckons that the stronger economic climate will mean better times throughout 2010.

As to the manufacturers themselves, the big five of Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson had mixed fortunes. As a group, they lost market share to the likes of Apple and other manufacturers, with their combined share dropping from 79.7% in 2008 to 75.3% in 2009.

Nokia’s share of the market dropped from 38.6% to 36.4% as pressure on smartphone price points took their toll. Samsung did actually better in 2009, going from 16.3% to 19.5%. LG also showed a market share improvement, up from 8.4% to 10.1%. But Motorola took a hit, falling from 8.7% to 4.8% and Sony Ericsson also showed a decline from 7.6% to 4.5%.

It is fair to say that Microsoft have struggled to make people love their mobile phone operating systems, but with the introduction of Windows Phone 7, unveiled at the annual mobile phone bash held in Barcelona, things might be looking up for the guys from Seattle.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was on hand to launch Windows Phone 7 at the Mobile World Congress 2010.

In a typical upbeat presentation, Mr Ballmer laid out his store:
“Today, I’m proud to introduce Windows Phone 7 Series, the next generation of Windows Phones. In a crowded market filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience. Windows Phone 7 Series marks a turning point toward phones that truly reflect the speed of people’s lives and their need to connect to other people and all kinds of seamless experiences.”

And that’s the gist of the Microsoft approach. Their challenge has to be to launch an operating system that will threaten the dominance of the big boys in the smartphone market. And Microsoft cannot regain lost ground by emulating the others; it has to produce something original and exciting.

It is with this new platform that the Seattle software kings can hold up their heads with pride; they hope. And they claim it offers a fresh approach, characterised by smart design and, in their words, “…truly integrated services.” In other words, letting people access quickly the content they want from the web and on=board applications.

Smart design will not be the key (considering the competition), but functionality, combined with smart design, could be.

To be fair, by design, Microsoft are talking about a holistic system that is behind every part of the phone, from the layout, motion, function and hardware integration. For example, the Start Screen will consist of dynamically updated ‘live tiles’ which will quickly open chosen applications.

So will Windows Phone 7 will be the answer that Microsoft needs? Much of course depends on the consumers liking the system, but also much lies with the operators wanting it and the manufacturers falling in line. Microsoft say that’s all in hand, with the major operators and manufacturers on board, and the first phones being available in mid 2010.

As to whether the consumers are infatuated, will only be clear by the end of the year. If they aren’t, then Microsoft will look like they’ve played their last hand in the mobile phone operating system market.