Smartphone companies OnePlus and Oppo will be working more closely together in the future, according to a forum post by OnePlus CEO Pete Lau. Mr Lau had already been looking after Oppo’s product strategy since last year.

Chinese technology manufacturer Huawei has launched a range of smartphones, smart watches and tablets that run its new HarmonyOS 2 operating system. The move emphasises the company’s transition away from Google’s Android OS.

Global smartphone shipments reached 340 million units in the first quarter of 2021, a 24% year-on-year increase, according to new figures from Strategy Analytics.

Chinese smartphone manufacturer OPPO has launched its new Find X3 series of handsets in the UK, including the flagship Find X3 Pro 5G. Features on the dust and water resistant Find X3 Pro include what the company is calling a ‘microlens’, which offers up to 60x magnification.

US President Donald Trump has signed Executive Orders that would ban the companies behind the TikTok and WeChat apps from working with American businesses.

Mark Bridge writes:

Unlimited mobile data. Once upon a time, it seemed that everyone offered it. Not that mobile data was ever really unlimited – there tended to be a ‘fair usage’ clause tucked away in the terms and conditions – but the word ‘unlimited’ was used a lot. The fact that it was always accompanied by an asterisk didn’t seem to trouble trading standards departments.

Mark Bridge writes:

Last month I was struck by the way video streaming service Bambuser was being used by citizen journalists.

Now comes news of a different kind of photo-journalism. Instead of shooting behind-the-scenes images of a general election, prisoner Michael Long has been using his mobile to record from behind bars.

Mark Bridge writes:

As sure as eggs, there’ll be an iPhone 5. It’ll be announced on 6th June 2011 if you want my guess. And the latest rumours are suggesting it’ll have ‘radial menus’.

This week’s edition of The Fonecast includes a report from Apps World, which took place in London on 30th November and 1st December. As the name suggests, the event was all about mobile applications, their development, the technology that’s used and the ways that apps are marketed.

Mark Bridge writes:

In this week’s podcast we talked about the ChevronWP7 ‘unlocking’ solution that allowed the installation of Windows Phone 7 applications without the need to use Microsoft’s Marketplace application store. Unlike previous Windows Mobile handsets, new WP7 devices can only add applications that are offered via the Microsoft Marketplace.

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.