Inq Mobile, a Hutchison Whampoa subsidiary that launched in 2007 as a mobile phone manufacturer and produced one of the first so-called ‘Facebook phones’ before changing its focus to mobile software, has closed down.

Last year it produced a personalised magazine application called Material and a ‘social homescreen’ app called SO.HO.

Mark Bridge writes:

Sometimes I worry that I’m turning into a grumpy old man. That I’ll follow the path of Rick Wakeman and become better known for my views on body piercing than for playing ‘The Six Wives of Henry VIII’ on eleven keyboards simultaneously.

UK communication regulator Ofcom has announced that all the UK’s major mobile phone networks are now covering 90% of UK homes with 3G service.

All were required to cover 90% of the UK population with 3G service by 30th June 2013. However, calculations published by Ofcom in November showed that Vodafone had only reached 88.66% coverage.

Mark Bridge writes:

There was great news for some BlackBerry owners this week. The new 10.2.1 update to the BlackBerry 10 OS was released, offering a new incoming call screen, SMS and email groups, more options for locking and unlocking, extra battery usage information, enterprise features and - for customers with a BlackBerry Z30, BlackBerry Q10 or BlackBerry Q5 smartphone - an FM radio.

76.9 million tablets were shipped around the world in the last three months of of 2013, according to figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC). That’s 62.4% up from the previous quarter and a year-on-year increase of 28.2%, although a much lower growth rate than the same quarter in 2012.

Total tablet shipments for 2013 reached 217.1 million units; up 50.6% from the previous year.