Last summer, Samsung announced the high-spec Samsung Z, which it described as “the first commercially available smartphone powered by the Tizen platform”. However, the launch was postponed and the phone’s release apparently cancelled in favour of a focus on lower-spec devices.

Samsung has now announced a new Tizen smartphone: the Samsung Z1.

The dramatic growth in smartphones running the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) platform or other ‘forked’ versions of Android is expected to slow next year, according to a report from ABI Research.

Devices that run forked or AOSP versions of Android don’t have direct access to the Google Play app store, unlike those produced by the Open Handset Alliance.

A new quarterly report from ​ABI Research show that shipments of ‘forked’ Android smartphones - those that use the Android Open Source Project rather than Google’s own version of Android - accounted for 20% of the smartphone market in Q2 2014.

Shipments of AOSP smartphones increased by 20% from the previous quarter, while the total market grew by just 3%.

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.

Nokia has sold most of its Devices & Services business to Microsoft, as originally announced in September last year. The deal also includes an agreement to license patents to Microsoft.

Although the deal was originally worth €5.44 billion (£4.48 billion), Nokia says it now expects the total transaction price to be slightly higher than this.

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?

The Toshiba Portege G900 smartphone is reviewed, we interview new Extreme Mobile MD John McFarnon, Ian White from Mobile News talks about customer service, we play with Flexis Extreme and we discuss the week’s industry news headlines.

10 things you need to know about the Apple iPhone, an exclusive interview with Unique Distribution's new CEO, industry news and gossip, Ian White's outspoken opinion and a review of the 'phoneAlarm' utility program.

What's happening at Truphone? We talk to the company’s CEO, James Tagg. Ian White tells us about "poaching", and the team review the latest news and views from around the industry, plus review the Sony Ericsson W910i and Spybot Search & Destroy.

The team are joined by Faisal Sheikh of Fone Doctors and Ian White of Mobile News to discuss T-Mobile's rumoured exit from the dealer channel, 3G for all, as well as the rest of the weeks news. They review the O2 Cocoon and debate "Is the mobile internet finally ready for consumers?", and Theme-DIY to customise Nokia series 60s.

The team review the HTC Touch an iPhone contender, debate the question "Are customers getting the mobile services they want?", bring you the latest news and find time to review "Kojak - Detective Puzzles".