The new Ericsson Mobility Report (previously called the Ericsson Traffic and Market Report) says around 40% of all mobile phones sold worldwide in the past quarter were smartphones.

Recent reports from ABI Research and IDC reached similar conclusions.

Research from the International Data Corporation shows that consumers are moving away from using PCs as their default device for internet usage and are favouring mobile technology instead.

In 2015, IDC expects the number of consumers accessing the internet through mobile devices in the USA to exceed PC-based internet use. Western Europe and Japan are thought to be around two years behind this trend.

VOA News writes:

Data protection agencies in Europe have concluded that Google's new privacy policy does not comply with the continent's laws, but the Internet search giant immediately rejected the claim.

New figures from the UK Internet Advertising Bureau reveal that advertising on the internet and on mobile phones has increased by 12.6% to £2.6 billion in the first half of 2012. That’s a £294 million increase from the first half of 2011.

Digital advertising on mobile devices is up 132% to £181.5 million, driven by increasing smartphone ownership.

Everything Everywhere, which was given the go-ahead to use its existing 1800MHz spectrum for next-generation mobile services last month, has revealed its 4G plans for the UK. It’s also said it’ll be branding the new service - and the parent company - simply as ‘EE’.

Its EE 4G LTE network is being switched on for testing from today and is expected to be available to customers in 16 cities by Christmas 2012, covering a third of the population.