Nielsen has put together data about the latest smartphone market-share results for Q4 of 2011 and it appears that Apple has done significantly well. The study focused on consumers that purchased smartphones within the past three months. The number of iPhone buyers increased from 25% in October to 45% in December. During the same period, the number of Android buyers fell by 14%. The increase in iPhone buyers was mainly due to the release of the Apple iPhone 4S. [Nielsen]

The Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone 4S has been given clearance for debuting in China. About 4 days ago, the China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has issued a network access permit for the iPhone 4S. China Unicom is preparing for the iPhone 4S to be released by Christmas or sometime early next year.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has started selling the iPhone 4S contract-free, but it will take “one to two weeks” to receive the device. The 16GB iPhone 4S model will be selling for $649, the 32GB is $749, and the 64GB costs $849. The unlocked phone allows you to use any micro-SIM from any GSM carrier worldwide, but it won’t work with CDMA carriers such as Verizon or Sprint. Both the black and white versions are up for order. You can order them from Apple now. [Engadget]

Although there has been some reports that the iPhone 4S would be shipped with an unlocked SIM from Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S). Above is a screenshot of an internal memo as received by Sprintfeed that states starting on November 11, 2011 “all iPhone 4S devices will have the SIM locked.” The memo also states that “the locking occurs during the activation process and is invisible to the customer.” The SIM lock update will not impact any iPhone 4S devices activated prior to 11/11/11. New customers will have to contact Sprint Worldwide for international services. [SprintFeed]

If you have an iPhone 4S, you may have wondered to yourself who the voice is behind Siri. Jon Briggs, a former technology journalist, has been the voice of Radio 2 and The Weakest Link. He has also been the voice for GPS devices created by Garmin, TomTom, Jaguar, Land Rover, Audi, and Porsche. Then he found out that he was the voice for Siri when he saw an ad on TV for the iPhone 4S.

Michael Steeber, a regular contributor at Cult of Mac, has received a tip about Siri. Steeber’s source e-mailed Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to find out about a bug report and suggested an optional build of iOS with Siri included as a paid upgrade. It turns out that Apple has no plans to add Siri to older devices.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced that the iPhone 4S will be available in Hong Kong, South Korea, and 13 other countries starting November 11, 2011. Customers will be able to start pre-ordering the device on November 4th. Apple will start shipping to Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Romania and South Korea on November 11th. The iPhone 4S is available today in 29 countries and the company is planning to ship to 70 countries by the end of the year. [Apple PR]

The Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) voice recognition system known as Siri is officially available to all iPhone 4S users. However hackers have been spending time trying to get Siri to work on other devices like the iPhone 4 and the iPod Touch. Earlier attempts were only able to get the user interface working on the iPhone 4, but the voice recognition service did not do very well. Developers @stroughtonsmith and @chpwn has successfully been able to integrate Siri into the older devices. Check out the video below of Siri in action on an iPod Touch 4G: