Patent strategy specialist RPX Corporation says one of its subsidiary companies has bought approximately 4,000 patents from Rockstar Consortium.

Rockstar was formed three years ago to acquire around 6,000 technology patent assets from Nortel.

New estimates from ABI Research show that 41.3 million branded tablets were shipped worldwide in the first calendar quarter of 2014.

Apple and Samsung accounted for 71% of the total, putting them well ahead of their competitors.

76.9 million tablets were shipped around the world in the last three months of of 2013, according to figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC). That’s 62.4% up from the previous quarter and a year-on-year increase of 28.2%, although a much lower growth rate than the same quarter in 2012.

Total tablet shipments for 2013 reached 217.1 million units; up 50.6% from the previous year.

The consortium that acquired Nortel’s portfolio of around 4,000 tech patents is now putting those patents into battle.

Those patents were bought in March 2012 for $4.5 billion by the Rockstar Consortium, which included Apple, Microsoft, RIM (BlackBerry), Ericsson and Sony.

While smartphone shipments for the past quarter are reported to have risen by over 38% year-on-year, the growth of tablet sales hasn’t been any less dramatic.

Figures from the International Data Corporation show tablet shipments up 36.7% year-on-year (and 7% from the previous quarter) to 47.6 million units.

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.