A recent research report from Strategy Analytics shows that the smartphone applications processor market grew by 58% year-on-year in Q3 2012, reaching $3.8 billion.

Qualcomm was estimated to have a 42% revenue share of the smartphone applications processor market in Q3 2012, followed by Samsung with 27%.

Revenue generated by the global smartphone applications processor market grew by 65% year-on-year in Q2 2011, according to a Strategy Analytics report.

In total, the smartphone chip market generated $1.7 billion during the quarter.

Texas Instruments and National Semiconductor have agreed a merger that’ll see 'TI' acquiring 'National' in a deal worth almost £4 billion.

TI currently has a portfolio of 30,000 products and represents around 14% of the analogue semiconductor market in terms of revenue, while National has 12,000 products and 3% of the market. The deal is expected to be finalised around the end of the year.

Qualcomm's new dual-core QSD8672 Snapdragon chip, which can run at up to 1.5GHz, will start shipping in the fourth quarter of 2010, the company said yesterday. This means manufacturers could release 1.5GHz smartphones by Christmas, although early 2011 seems more likely.

ARM, Freescale, IBM, Samsung, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments have formed a not-for-profit software engineering company called Linaro. It plans to make Linux-based development faster and easier, with a focus on ARM chips.

The new partnership is committed to investing in open source projects that can be used by Linux-based distributions, such as Android, LiMo, MeeGo, Ubuntu and webOS. Its software and tools will be available for a variety of devices that utilise semiconductor System-on-Chips (SoCs), including smartphones, tablets, digital televisions, automotive entertainment and enterprise equipment.

Mark Bridge writes:

In the past five years, what started as an advertising message - “there’s an app for that” - has become a challenge to developers. It’s become part of 21st century culture. And it’s become an totem for journalists to pin their most outrageous app-based stories to.

Roadroid doesn’t need the attention-grabbing headlines.

Mark Bridge writes:

What would you say to a tiny little device that enabled you to recharge your smartphone almost anywhere, whenever you wanted?

This is pretty much what a US-based company called Nomad is promising. In fact, they sent me two of their latest products to try.

Mark Bridge writes:

Every week we produce a half-hour podcast that covers all the biggest news headlines for the UK mobile phone industry.

Thanks to a special offer from Scribie.com, we can also offer a transcription of last week’s programme.

Mark Bridge writes:

Apple kicked off its 2014 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) last week with an announcement about the forthcoming iOS 8 operating system for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. There was some catching up, some innovation and a couple of new services designed to work with home automation and health/fitness devices. What’s Tim Cook’s plan? We’ll have to wait and see.

Mark Bridge writes:

Bitcoin, as Wikipedia tells me, is a peer-to-peer payment system introduced as open-source software in 2009. It’s a ‘virtual currency’ that can be used for transferring money and for buying products or services, although only if your chosen retailer accepts Bitcoin.

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.