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?

James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return from their summer break with a podcast full of smartphones and smart watches.

As well as products from Samsung, Sony, Microsoft, Motorola, HTC and Kazam, there's talk of Opera's new browser deal, a potential change on the UK high street... and a mobile app that connects to a Bluetooth toothbrush for improved toothpaste coverage.

Mark Bridge takes an in-depth look at the CAT B100 rugged phone from Bullitt Mobile.

The CAT B100 is designed to withstand rather more than everyday bumps and knocks - which is why Mark drops his mobile phone on the pavement, submerges it in his washing-up bowl and shuts it in the freezer.

We start this week's podcast with news that thousands of Microsoft's ex-Nokia employees are losing their jobs.

Other topics for discussion include the new Apple and IBM partnership, Yahoo's acquisition of Flurry, regulating mobile games, improving rural mobile coverage, BT's new phone service and some management movements.

In this podcast Mark Bridge talks to Florent Stroppa from mobile value-added service specialist OnMobile about the state of the mobile industry in 2014.

They discuss the dominance of Apple and Samsung, network consolidation, the new Amazon Fire smartphone, smart wearables and much more.

This week's mobile industry podcast begins with a quick look at the UK government's emergency legislation affecting fixed-line, mobile phone and broadband traffic.

We then talk about Microsoft's plans, a new virtual network from the Post Office, Samsung's renamed app store, budget 4G smartphones, a wearable phone for children and some misleading advertising.