Gamers rejoice: Verizon Wireless will be offering a full-featured smartphone – with real game controls – in April. Sony Ericsson’s Xperia PLAY, a PlayStation Android smartphone, will feature a touchscreen, dedicated gaming keys, shoulder buttons and an analog touch joystick.

Powered by Android, the Xperia PLAY also includes stereo sound and support for multi-player gaming, WiFi connectivity, a new interface, keyboard improvements, and access to more than 100,000 apps.

What impact the Xperia Play phone will have on Sony Ericsson’s position in the smartphone market remains to be seen.

As reported last month by TechZone360.com, Apple glided past Sony Ericsson and Motorola last year, as its mobile handset sales dominated 2.9 percent of the global market, according to data released today from Gartner.

Gartner announced that Apple sold 46.6 million units in 2010, an increase of 87.2 percent from 2009, when it sold 24.9 million.

"This growth is largely due to expansion into new countries and the ending of exclusivity deals, which has made the iPhone available through 185 communication service providers (CSPs) around the world," Gartner reported. That growth is only expected to continue in 2011, with the launch of the Verizon iPhone.

Overall, global mobile phone sales totaled 1.6 billion in 2010, up 31.8 percent from 2009, according to Garner, while smartphones sales were up 72.1 percent and accounted for 19 percent of total mobile sales.

Nokia remains the current top seller, with 461 million units sold and 28.9 percent of the market. That was a 7.5 percent drop in market share from 2009, and its smartphone share also dropped 6.7 percent.