ABI Research, the International Data Corporation, Juniper Research and Strategy Analytics have all published their estimates for mobile phone sales in 2012. Although some manufacturers release shipment or sales figures as part of their quarterly results, others - such as Samsung - don’t provide a detailed breakdown.

The full statement from IDC is below.

Samsung Electronics has announced financial results for the fourth quarter of its financial year.

Revenue was up over 18% year-on-year to 56.06 trillion Korean won (£33 billion), while consolidated net profit was up almost 76% to 7.04 trillion won (£4.14 billion).

Mark Bridge writes:

Targeted advertising on mobile devices is something we’re all getting increasingly familiar with. Visit a web site and there’s a good chance you’ll see an advertisement that’s aimed directly at you, perhaps using information about the sites you’ve previously visited, the type of smartphone you’re using or even your location.

Yet listen to the radio or stream music on your smartphone and that same level of personalisation hasn’t been aavailable. That’s all changing now, with help from a new service called UTuneMe.

In this special feature we're talking to Shankar Meembat, co-founder and CEO of Exaget, about the company's new UTuneMe service.

It lets broadcasters add targeted audio advertisements to radio programmes that are streamed onto smartphones.

Last year smartphone users spent $8 billion (around £5 billion) for paid apps in the five biggest application stores: the Apple App Store, Google Play, BlackBerry App World, Nokia Ovi Store and Windows Phone Store.

That’s a 27% increase from the previous year, according to a new report from mobile research specialists research2guidance.