After many years of seeing no obvious return on Vodafone's investment in Verizon Wireless, shareholders are to receive a dividend payment.

The board of Verizon Wireless has approved the payment of a $10 billion (£6.1 billion) dividend, which means Vodafone - as a 45% shareholder in Verizon Wireless - will pick up $4.5 billion on 31st January 2012.

The International Data Corporation has calculated that worldwide mobile phone shipments were up by 11.3% in the second quarter of 2011, even though feature phone shipments dropped for the first time since Q3 of 2009. Its Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker reports that 365.4 million units were shipped in Q2 2011.

IDC says the feature phone market shrank by 4% year-on-year - and isn't expected to grow by more than 1.1% in the future.

103 million smartphones were shipped in Q2 2011 according to ABI Research. That's a 62% growth on the same period last year and a 2.2% increase on last quarter.

It notes that Nokia's smartphone market share has fallen from 38% last year and 24% last quarter to 16% in Q2 2011, leaving it in third place when it comes to shipments.

Motorola Mobility has announced financial results for the second quarter of 2011. It reported net revenue of $3.3 billion, up 28% from the same period in 2010.

Sanjay Jha, chairman and chief executive officer of Motorola Mobility, said "With a focus on profitable growth and delivering differentiated LTE smartphones and tablets, we expect to achieve profitability in Mobile Devices in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2011."

Mark Bridge writes:

You could probably describe Burnside Telecom as the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer. No, not production volumes - but the physical size of its products.

This UK-based designer and manufacturer produces a variety of mobile devices, from office-style 'desktop mobile phones' to the type of rugged outdoor telephone used at railway crossings.