Although smartphone sales don’t have the dramatic year-on-year growth they once had, ABI Research has published a new report that shows these sales figures are still increasing.

It expects 1.25 billion smartphones to be shipped this year, with smartphone shipments forecast to pass the 2 billion mark in 2018.

Last year, the number of WiFi hotspots around the world increased to 4.2 million.

ABI Research says this trend is expected to continue for the next few years, with a compound annual growth rate of 15% resulting in 7.1 million hotspots in 2015 and over 10.5 million in 2018.

Microsoft has revealed details of its forthcoming Windows Phone 8.1 mobile operating system, which will be installed on new phones from this month and will also be available as an update to current Windows Phone 8 users in the near future.

This new version of the Windows Phone OS will offer a virtual assistant called Cortana, named after a character in the Halo video game series.

Figures from ABI Research show that mobile phone producers based in China will account for over 50% of mobile handsets in 2015.

Chinese manufacturers were responsible for 38% of handset shipments last year, with growth in low-cost smartphones boosting this market share.

Telecoms company Alcatel-Lucent says it’s talking to technology investment business China Huaxin about the sale of its Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise division.

The deal values Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise at €268 million (£223 million) on a cash-free, debt-free enterprise value basis.

Mark Windle, head of marketing at OpenCloud, predicts that this year’s reduction in the number of traditional telecoms operators in some countries will provide an opportunity for other operators to innovate and capture market share in 2016.

He says next year will be a year of rapid change for telecoms… whether it’s MVNO disruption, competitive tariff pricing or simply defence from the ‘dark art’ of hacking.

Mark Bridge writes:

The most memorable moments in life often go unrecorded. You don't have your camera in your hands. Your finger is still hovering over the 'pause' button on your audio recorder. Or you were simply too busy experiencing whatever was happening. It's all about the one that got away.

That's where Kapture can help.

Mark Bridge writes:

James Rosewell shows me a colourful roll of paper that's the width of an iPhone but well over three metres long. When I look closer, I can see it's a printed copy of the Wall Street Journal's mobile website. That's a lot of scrolling to do... and a pretty unfriendly user experience for anyone reading the news online. Why does it work so badly?

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return to review their mobile industry predictions from last year. Which mergers, partnerships and developments did they forecast correctly... and which didn’t work out as planned?

Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.

They talk about wearable devices, wireless charging, mobile operating systems and much more... including some of their favourite products from the exhibition.

We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.

We also talk about the planned BT and EE merger, the creation of two new UK virtual networks, some acquisitions in the mobile payment arena and a new Ubuntu smartphone.

In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.