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?

We begin this week's podcast with a discussion about the Heartbleed bug, the effect it's having on the mobile industry and the wider issues for all internet users.

We're also talking about the future of BlackBerry, UK 4G coverage, new CEOs, Bluetooth connectivity, privacy concerns and the next generation of mobile processors.

This week's podcast starts with news from Microsoft about an update to its Windows Phone platform and a cost-free OS offer to hardware manufacturers.

There's also a new flagship smartphone from Nokia, a roaming announcement from the European Parliament, a UK virtual mobile network from The Co-operative Group, a change at the top for Mozilla, retail expansion for Vodafone and an awkward end to BlackBerry's relationship with T-Mobile in the USA.

Acquisition announcements from Facebook and Intel are the first stories in this week's look at the latest UK mobile industry headlines.

They're followed by news about mobile payments, mobile banking, a phone with an invisible solar panel, customer complaints, low-cost 4G smartphones, productivity apps and an intriguing case of WhatsApp-itis.

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge are reunited for their regular weekly look at the latest UK mobile industry headlines.

Today they're talking about smart watches, an Apple iPhone announcement, the new HTC One M8, the closure of Ovivo Mobile, text spam, peer-to-peer messaging, government hacking and mergers.

Producing mobile phones for older customers requires much more than big buttons and a simple interface. At Mobile World Congress last month we spoke to two major players in this growing sector: Swedish company Doro and Austria's Emporia Telecom.

Our first conversation was with Harald Obereder, Chief Technology Officer at Emporia, who spoke to Mark Bridge about handset design and user interface design. This was followed by an interview with Chris Millington, Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland, about research and development in the 'senior tech' market.