As per the recent post on Appolicious website, there are a few developments in the mobile space to watch in the new year. In fact, according to Appolicious reporter Kevin Maney, there are five things to watch for in 2011. These are:

. Mobile will settle into a duopoly

. Tablets will pause before exploding

. Apple’s App Store will surpass 500,000 apps

. Private location sharing will take off

. Mobile gadgets will have a common charger

Before the year-end, two major mobile operating systems will be dominating the mobile platform. These include Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS. All the others will be in the third camp, competing with each other to gain share. Like the PC market before it, mobile devices will go from a number of platforms to two that matter, writes Maney.

Two things will drive tablets in 2011—Low cost and viable alternatives to Apple’s iPad. “Neither are likely to happen in the first half of 2011,” says the Appolicious reporter. At the Consumer Electronics show this month, Motorola is expected to unveil an iPad competitor, and a slew of other companies will be either showing or talking about tablets.

According to the reporter, the first generation iPad competitors are not good enough to excite consumers or make a dent in iPad’s market share. And if Apple doesn’t have serious competition, it won’t have much reason to aggressively drop iPad’s price, says the writer.

However, he writes, later in the year when second-generation tablets appear, things will change. By that time, the new generation tablets will be good and low-cost to make a dent into the iPad market share..

Meanwhile, apps in Apple’s App Store are soaring. With more than 25,000 added each month, expect more than 500,000 apps before the year-end. But, how many of those apps really matter is a different discussion. And requires a separate probe.

Speaking of new useful apps, there is one category emerging around location-sharing, such as Foursquare. While many don’t want to broadcast to the world where they are or what the plans are for the week, there are people who would like to inform family, friends and colleagues.

One such example is Neer. It lets a family set up location sharing just among themselves. Similarly, a group of people on a ski vacation together could set up a Neer-type network so they can find each other after their ski.

Incompatibility has been a major frustration for mobile battery charges. Consequently, 14 top mobile manufacturers have agreed to standardize on chargers that connect to devices via micro-USB connection. In a statement, the European Commission said: “Incompatibility of chargers for mobile phones is not only a major inconvenience for users, but also a considerable environmental problem. Users who want to change their mobile phones must usually acquire a new charger and dispose of the old one, even if it is in good condition.”