Most CIOs and IT professionals hate to support smartphones and personal gadgets that employees bring to work. But now state government CIOs are being urged to do just that.

A new study by the National Association of State CIOs recommends states consider allowing employees to use personal smartphones for work. In an update to its "Security at the Edge" research report on the use of smartphones in state government, NASCIO says that the use of employee-owned smartphones can save IT organizations money and be a viable alternative to government-issued devices during a time of shrinking budgets.

Yet another set of market-share measurement numbers – this one markedly more consumer than enterprise focused – shows solid gains for iPhone and a huge leap for Google's Android.

According to AdMob, a mobile advertising network, smartphones accounted for 48 percent of its worldwide traffic last month, up from 35 percent in February 2009, and the iPhone OS accounted for half of all requests, up from one third in in February 2009. Android, however, is growing even faster, accounting for 24 percent of the February 2010 ad requests, up from only 2 percent a year earlier.

Sprint has taken the wraps off its long-rumored, Android-based WiMAX smartphone, the elegantly dubbed HTC EVO 4G, which will be available this summer.

The new device is a key component of Sprint's strategy to make high-speed wireless networks available to mobile professionals. (See WiMAX/4G Coming Sooner Than You Think.) In front of a standing-room-only crowd at the CTIA show in Las Vegas, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse unveiled the new HTC Evo, and sprinkled in light-hearted jabs at AT&T, Verizon, Apple's iPhone and Motorola's Droid.

Apple may be conceding the enterprise to RIM's Blackberry, but third-party developers and its carrier partner, AT&T are not.

AT&T yesterday unveiled a new iPhone app designed to let users securely access to enterprise Web applications from their phones and to bring iPhones deployed for business under IT control.

A  venture-backed provider of enterprise mobile application management has launched a public beta of a cloud-based service that amounts to an in-house iPhone App Store for the enterprise.

Despite it's decidedly cutesy name, Ondeego, founded in 2007, is aiming at the enterprise with its AppCentral deployment system, designed to let businesses and developers manage the discovery, distribution, installation and deletion of apps on mobile devices, now including the iPhone.

A new study by research firm In-Stat estimates the total number of mobile VoIP users will reach 288 million in less than three years time. Aside from continuing the downward spiral of voice communication costs, this rapid growth of mobile broadband portends more capable and robust mobile data applications for the enterprise, suggests the study's author, In-Stat analyst Frank Dickson. 

Despite the push behind 4G network expansion using both WiMAX and LTE technology in the US (see WiMAX/4G Coming Sooner Than You Think), fastest growth in mobile VoIP will come in the Asia/Pacific region over the next three years and only 11 percent of the nearly 300 million users will come from WiMAX/LTE operators. Well over half, the study predicts, will come from mobile VoIP providers, as evidenced by Verizon's recently announced plan to offer Skype VoIP calling on its wireless network.