There are two billion-dollar deals in this week's show, with Facebook acquiring Instagram and AOL selling hundeds of patents to Microsoft. In addition, we discuss the rest of the mobile industry headlines - from security to virtual reality.
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Figures from Gartner forecast that worldwide media tablet sales will total 118.9 million units this year, a 98% increase from last year’s end-user sales of 60 million units.
Apple iPad devices are expected to account for 61.4% of all tablet sales (73 million tablets) in 2012. Android follows with 31.9%; just under 38 million tablets.
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A new research report from Berg Insight estimates that 108 million mobile network connections were being used for machine-to-machine communication at the end of 2011, a 37% increase on the previous year.
Asia-Pacific was the strongest regional market, with a year-on-year growth rate of 64%, while Europe saw annual growth of around 27% to 32.3 million connections.
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AOL has agreed to sell over 800 of its patents and associated patent applications to Microsoft, with Microsoft also being given permission to use the patents AOL is keeping.
The total deal is worth $1.056 billion (£664 million).
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Facebook has agreed to acquire photo sharing service Instagram. Two-year-old Instagram offers iOS and Android apps for taking photos, adding effects and then sharing the results online.
Instagram is expected to continue as an independent application.
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