Silicon Valley becomes home of mobile market

The center of gravity for the global smartphone industry is shifting to Silicon Valley, where local companies are transforming the way people use handheld gadgets to talk, send messages and browse the Internet.

Even five years ago, the trendiest smartphone designs were coming from places like Waterloo, Ontario, home of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, and Espoo, Finland, where Nokia is headquartered. But that changed with the 2007 launch of Apple's revolutionary iPhone, which electrified consumers with its sleek combination of touch-screen browser, music library and a seemingly infinite warehouse of downloadable applications. Since then, Google's Android operating system has begun catching on with manufacturers of phones, netbooks and tablet computers. Microsoft and Nokia now employ hundreds of people working on smartphones in the valley. And scores of local startups and independent apps developers have formed a satellite industry that didn't exist a few years ago. Analysts say Hewlett-Packard's move to buy Sunnyvale phone maker Palm is likely to fuel even more smartphone innovation in the valley, as the Palo Alto tech giant has promised to increase spending on developing and promoting new mobile gadgets based on Palm's latest software.