Earlier this year the European Commission launched two iPhone-related investigations into Apple's business practices. One looked at Apple’s insistence that repairs were only available in the country where an iPhone was bought, while the other concerned Apple's decision that developers could only use Apple’s own programming tools and approved languages when writing iPhone apps.

The EU says it's invested 10 million Euro in the three-year webinos project, which aims to deliver a platform for web applications across mobile, PC, home media (TV) and in-car devices.

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.

Mobile marketing agency YOC has announced what it's describing as 'Europe's first rich media advertising platform'.

It's called YOC Ad Plus and it offers advertisers the ability to embed video, picture galleries and 360° rotation into their mobile advertising. The service is currently available for the Apple iPhone and iPad, and will be available for the Android operating system in the autumn.

Chinese mobile manufacturer ZTE Corporation has announced interim financial results for the first half of 2010. Operating revenue increased by 10.9% year-on-year to $4.524 billion (around £2.9 billion), with almost a fifth of this coming from European and US markets.