A new research report from Analysys Mason predicts that Windows Phone will become the fastest-growing smartphone operating system in the next five years. However, it will still only have a single-digit percentage share of the smartphone market in 2017.

Last year, Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS was shipped in 11 million devices. In 2017 this figure is expected to reach 136 million units; approximately the same number of Apple devices shipped in 2012.

Photography pioneer Eastman Kodak Company has arranged a deal that’ll see a consortium of companies paying around $525 million to buy and license over a thousand of its patents, including its digital imaging patent portfolio.

The consortium, which has been organised by Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corporation, is believed to contain Adobe Systems, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Fujifilm, Google, HTC, Huawei, Microsoft, Research in Motion, Samsung and Shutterfly.

Smartphone penetration across France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom hit 54.6% during the three-month period from August to the end of October 2012, according to the comScore MobiLens service. It found that Spain had the highest smartphone penetration in Europe (63.2% of mobile phone users) followed by the UK at 62.3%.

Spain also had the most dramatic growth, up almost 15 percentage points from last year.

The launch of new Windows Phone 8 devices last month doesn’t mean that customers with older Windows Phone handsets have been neglected.

Users running Windows Phone 7.5 on older devices, such as the Nokia Lumia 800, can’t update to version 8 but have previously been promised an interim update to version 7.8.

Telefonica and Microsoft have signed an agreement to create a new video platform that’ll be used for entertainment across Telefonica’s operating businesses worldwide.

The new service will take advantage of Microsoft’s Mediaroom online TV technology and will be capable of delivering video content to compatible set-top boxes, Xbox 360 consoles, web browsers, tablets and smartphones. Initially the service will be offered in Brazil, Chile and Spain.