A few more days and the world bids farewell to 2010. And this is the perfect time to drop some mobile predictions, expectations and forecasts. The most anticipated of all is the Android explosion. While Chinese calendar indicates that 2011 is the “year of the rabbit”, for the tech sphere, it is going to be the “year of the Android”.

Seth Weintraub noted in his article for CNNMoney.com that Android will pose a big threat to Apple and its flag-carrier iPhone: “Growth targets are just starting to trickle out, but HTC, who make high end Android devices and a few Windows Phone 7 devices expect to triple their 2010 output in 2011. Yet if things play out the way Rubin, Google, Broadcom and HTC hope, even that may wind up being a conservative estimate for Android growth. What’s most interesting is that unless Apple (AAPL) has a plan to keep up, their iPhone, once one of the only usable smartphone games in town, may wind up back where most Apple products are slotted– at the top of the market, affordable only to those willing and able to pay a premium for Steve Jobs’ aesthetic sensibilities.”

The two chief drivers for Android’s foreseen domination next year are continuous wireless infrastructure improvements and cheaper costs of hardware. This two can be further united and be enveloped under the term “price”. In 2010, price has dictated the sales of smartphones around the globe. China and India which have over a billion population only posted a market penetration of less than 10%. But, with the elimination of hardware subsidies, experts and manufacturers are looking at a price cut of 50% and more.

In another report, Apple has heard this peril and turned up the volume. The organization is more likely to welcome 2011 with a big bang with their estimated increase in mass shipment of iPhone for the first quarter of the year. From the original plan of 19 million unit-shipments, Apple augments their goal and is now up to 20-21 million units. This information was leaked by two component providers of the company based in Taiwan.

The unnamed source said, “The first-quarter shipment goal for WCDMA iPhones has been adjusted from 13 million units to 14-15 million units, the sources said. The shipment goal for CDMA iPhones, which will be launched in North America and Asia Pacific in the first quarter, is set at 5-6 million units.”

Apple’s last hurrah for the fourth quarter gave them 15.5 million units shipped. All in all, the business has made a total of 47 million shipments for 2010.