In a bid to return its mobile phone business to profitability, Google says it’s planning to reduce the number of employees at its Motorola Mobility subsidiary by around a fifth.

Approximately 4,000 of the company’s 20,000 employees are expected to be cut, with two-thirds of the reduction expected to occur outside the US.

Last year Finnish software company Digia arranged to acquire the Qt commercial software licensing business from Nokia.

It’s now announced plans to acquire the Qt technology and business from Nokia, which means it’s taking over the entire Qt Project. Digia now plans to bring Qt to the Android, iOS and Windows 8 platforms.

New figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC) have revealed that 85% of all smartphones shipped in the second quarter of 2012 ran either Android or Apple’s iOS.

It’s a new combined high for the two mobile operating systems, contrasting with BlackBerry and Symbian which both saw their market shares fall below 5%.

US-based China Labor Watch has released an investigative report into HEG Electronics (Huizhou), which produces mobile phones and audio-visual equipment for Samsung.

It carried out three investigations during June and July 2012, noting that child labour appears to be a common practice in the factory. Seven children under the age of 16 were discovered working in one department, according to the report.

A report from Strategy Analytics shows that Qualcomm continues to lead the market for application processors used in smartphone manufacturing, although its market share has fallen. Not only did Qualcomm lead Q1 2012 in terms of unit shipments, it also took 44% of revenue share.

Overall, the global smartphone application processor market showed 55% year-on-year growth in the first quarter of 2012, reaching $2.47 billion.