Intel-owned online security business McAfee has made its Mobile Security product available free to Android and iOS users.

It follows an announcement made earlier this year by Intel CEO Brian Krzanich.

Elements of McAfee mobile security products will become free for Apple iOS and Android devices, according to a statement made by Intel CEO Brian Krzanich at International CES 2014.

In addition, the McAfee name will be dropped as an online security brand, with future products becoming part of the new ‘Intel Security’ family.

Intel-owned online security company McAfee Labs has published its Predictions Report for 2014, using trends from 2013 to forecast the type of online threats anticipated next year.

The company says it expects the mobile platform to “draw the lion’s share of threat innovation” in 2014. Ransomware - taking control of a user’s device and asking for payment - is expected to become an increasing threat to mobile users, as are sophisticated attacks that can bypass some security measures.

Online security company McAfee has just published its Threats Report for the first quarter of 2012, which was a record quarter for mobile and PC-based malware.

However, the company notes that its ability to detect and collect mobile malware has also improved significantly.

Intel-owned McAfee Labs has just published the McAfee Threats Report for the third quarter of 2011.

At the end of 2010, the security technology company anticipated there’d be 70 million unique mobile malware samples by the end of 2011… and it’s recently increased its prediction to 75 million unique malware samples, which would make 2011 the busiest year in mobile malware history.

Mark Bridge writes:

Recent figures released by ABI Research have prompted the market intelligence company to ask whether Google is losing control of the Android ecosystem.

At first glance, Android dominated smartphone shipments for the final quarter of 2013. ABI Research says 77% of the 287 million smartphones shipped in Q4 2013 were running Android.

Robin Kent writes:

After initially suffering from slow pick up by consumers, 4G has begun to accelerate, and is now well on the way to the forecasted one billion subscribers by 2017. In fact EE, owner of T-Mobile and Orange, recently announced the addition of 493,000 new 4G customers to its existing base of 1.2 million.

Mark Bridge writes:

A new report has highlighted the issue of poor mobile phone coverage in rural Sussex villages. BBC Sussex invited me onto their ‘Sussex Breakfast’ radio show to explain what could be done - and, as usual, I made enough notes for a lecture rather than a three-minute interview.

Here’s what I would have liked to have said if I’d been given a disproportionate amount of time to talk.

Mark Bridge writes:

Great news for mobile phone users. Ofcom’s new rules preventing unexpected mid-contract price rises came into force last week, which means UK consumers can no longer be surprised by their subscription charge increasing while they’re still locked into a minimum-term deal.

Mark Bridge writes:

This week, new Ofcom rules came into force. They’re designed to avoid unexpected price rises during the minimum term of a mobile phone contract. Yes, just because you signed a fixed-term contract doesn’t mean the charges can’t increase. Networks said they needed this option in case of inflation or regulatory changes. Customers felt trapped.

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return to review their mobile industry predictions from last year. Which mergers, partnerships and developments did they forecast correctly... and which didn’t work out as planned?

Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.

They talk about wearable devices, wireless charging, mobile operating systems and much more... including some of their favourite products from the exhibition.

We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.

We also talk about the planned BT and EE merger, the creation of two new UK virtual networks, some acquisitions in the mobile payment arena and a new Ubuntu smartphone.

In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.