James Rosewell writes:

Mobile network operators have responded en-masse to the success of Apple’s App Store. Apple should be very concerned. The Wholesale Application Community (WAC) has been formed as a corporate entity today with representation from AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, GSMA, KT Corporation, NTT DOCOMO, SK Telecom, Smart Communications, SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp., Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telekom Austria Group, Telenor, Verizon and Vodafone. Not many major Mobile Network Operators (MNO) are missing from the list.

Phones 4u and DSG International have announced a retail partnership that'll create over 50 ‘Phones 4u at Currys’ store-within-store areas this year. The plans build on recent trials in Birmingham, Thurrock, Hedge End, Merry Hill and Stevenage Currys Megastores. More outlets are planned for 2011.

Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos says $1 billion of worldwide sales in the last 12 months have been made via mobile phones, Kindle eBook readers and tablet computers. He revealed the figures when announcing the company's quarterly results, which showed a 41% sales increase to $6.57 billion.

Earlier this month ABI Research predicted there'd be 5 billion mobile phones worldwide by the end of the year… yet a few days later Ericsson estimated there were already 5 million mobiles.

Now the GSMA – one of the mobile industry's global trade associations – has confirmed the 5 billion figure, putting its weight behind recent figures from Wireless Intelligence.

Mobile telecom author and commentator Tomi Ahonen has published a lengthy blog post covering smartphone segmentation: which people use smartphones - and why they use them.

In it, he anticipates around 35% growth in smartphone shipments this year (excluding Japan), with most growth coming from lower-priced handsets. Headline figures include...