Mobile and wireless research firm iSuppli Corp says its Q2 2010 list of the fastest-growing smartphone manufacturers is dominated by companies utilising the Android operating system.

The latest mobile industry legal action sees Motorola taking legal action against Apple. It follows Microsoft's recent complaints about the Android operating system in Motorola devices.

Yesterday Microsoft filed a patent infringement action against Motorola that relates to Android-based devices, with the Motorola Droid 2 named as an example in most of the nine claims.

Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Microsoft's Intellectual Property and Licensing team, said "The patents at issue relate to a range of functionality embodied in Motorola’s Android smartphone devices that are essential to the smartphone user experience, including synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power".

Motorola has acquired Aloqa, a company that develops location-based software. The myAloqa service uses a customer's location and contacts to tell them about places, events, bargains and other opportunities nearby. The company has recently passed one million downloads for its software application.

The mobile phone market in Western Europe grew just 1.5% year-on-year to 43.3 million units in the second quarter of 2010, with smartphone growth offsetting a fall in the sale of traditional handsets. International Data Corporation's Mobile Phone Tracker says smartphone shipments were up 60% on Q2 2009 to 14.6 million units, while traditional phone sales fell 14% to 28.7 million units. That means 34% of all devices shipped were smartphones, up from 28% in the previous quarter.