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?

Iain, James and Mark begin this week's podcast with Apple's recent iOS 8 revelation and its plan to acquire Beats Electronics.

They then move on to discuss Samsung's Tizen-powered smartphone, a new flagship device from LG and the latest Microsoft Surface tablet - as well as a network takeover in Ireland, BlackBerry’s M2M moves and UK price changes for Vodafone.

This week's podcast begins with news about the creation of Dixons Carphone plc. We then move on to talk about patent-related legal action, customised Braille phones and the health concerns of children using smartphones.

There's also time to discuss tablet shipments, potential protests and foreign network sales.

This podcast contains the audience question-and-answer session from 'Cloud Computing and Mobile'; a Mobile Monday London event held on 12th May 2014.

The discussion was chaired by Camille Mendler, Principal Analyst at Informa, with a panel that comprised Rob Easton of Google, Dr Janko Mrsic-Flogel from Private Planet, Caroline Van Den Bergh of Golden Gekko and Jonathan Raper from TransportAPI.com.

Cloud Computing and Mobile was the title of the Mobile Monday London event on 12th May 2014.

The session was chaired by Camille Mendler, Principal Analyst at Informa, who was joined by a panel that comprised Rob Easton of Google, Dr Janko Mrsic-Flogel from Private Planet, Caroline Van Den Bergh of Golden Gekko and Jonathan Raper from TransportAPI.com.

This week's podcast begins with a new keenly-priced flagship smartphone from Huawei. We then move on to talk about a UK price promise from Vodafone, mobile payments, feature phone upgrades, WiFi hotspots and the benefits of a Carphone/Dixons merger.

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge condense all the biggest mobile industry news headlines from the past 7 days into a free 30-minute podcast.