The US National Safety Council has estimated that a 1.6 million traffic accidents every year are caused by drivers using mobile phones. That's 28% of all road accidents in the United States. It says the vast majority of crashes - 1.4 million - are caused by drivers using mobiles and at least 200,000 more are caused by drivers who are texting.

Janet Froetscher, president and CEO of the National Safety Council, said "This new estimate provides critical data for legislators, business leaders and individuals to evaluate the threat and need for legislation, business policies and personal actions to prevent cell phone use and texting while driving."

The USA has a new non-profit organisation; a national group called FocusDriven that's devoted to raising awareness about the dangers of distracted driving. The group was created following a 'Distracted Driving Summit' in Washington DC last September and describes itself as "advocates for cell-free driving".

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said "Just as groups like MADD [Mothers Against Drunk Driving] changed attitudes about drunk driving, I believe FocusDriven can help raise awareness and change the way people think about distracted driving. Together, I hope we can put an end to this dangerous practice."

California-based Amobee Media Systems, which enables mobile operators to advertise across a variety of content, has agreed to acquire London's RingRing Media – a two-year-old business described as the world's largest mobile advertising agency. RingRing's founders, Ben Tatton-Brown and Harry Dewhirst, will remain with the company.

LG Electronics says it's set itself a goal of selling 140 million mobile phones this year, 20% more than in 2009. It also says it's going to push into the smartphone market and wants to become one of the world's top two mobile device manufacturers by 2012.

This year, LG says it'll reveal around 20 smartphones with at least half of them using the Android operating system. "Hopes are especially high for Android phones, which, with their user-friendly and open-access OS, are expected to make up more than half of all LG’s new smartphone releases", the company said. This seems at odds with LG's year-old partnership with Microsoft, when a joint statement in 2009 promised "LG will make Windows its primary operating system for its smartphones".