Last month Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said that software support for Symbian phones would continue until 2016 at the earliest. It's now become clear why he was able to give that date with such confidence.

Nokia and Accenture have published details of their agreement for the outsourcing of Symbian software development and support activities, which was first announced at the end of April.

In this week's edition of The Fonecast we're returning to the subject of location-tracking on iPhones. We then move on to Nokia’s reorganisation, Visa's investment in mobile payment start-up Square... and RIM's plans for BlackBerry.

We also prepare for our forthcoming 250th podcast by turning the clock back to 2008, when we spoke to virtual mobile network Blyk about its first 100,000 UK customers.

This week's podcast returns to the subject of iPhone tracking before moving on to BlackBerry news, Nokia's reorganisation and mobile payments. There's also a look back to 2008, when virtual network Blyk announced its first 100,000 UK customers.

Nokia has announced plans to "align its global workforce" in order to deliver on its new strategy, which involves a partnership with Microsoft.

Around 4,000 employees are expected to leave the company by the end of next year, with the majority of reductions in Denmark, Finland and the UK. In addition, about 3,000 employees involved with Symbian will be transferred to Accenture.

The Wholesale Applications Community, formed in February to encourage the creation of an open applications platform, has been joined by 32 new organisations.

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.