The United States International Trade Commission has ruled in favour of a Samsung complaint about one of its 3G patents, banning older Apple iPhones (anything before the iPhone 4S) and older iPads (first and second-generation models) from being imported into the USA and sold there.

Newer devices aren’t affected.

Apple’s results for the second quarter of its current financial year - the three months until 30th March 2013 - show quarterly revenue of $43.6 billion (£28.6 billion; up 11% year-on-year) and quarterly net profit of $9.5 billion (down 18%).

It’s the first drop in quarterly profit for several years.

Figures from ABI Research predict tablet sales this year will increase 38% year-on-year to approximately 150 million tablets worldwide, with the total retail value of shipments up 28% to an estimated $64 billion (£42 billion).

Around 60% of tablet shipments in 2012 were Apple iPads using the iOS operating system software while 37% ran Android or derivative platforms.

Mark Bridge writes:

Apple launches a new product and BlackBerry pushes it out of the headlines. Who’d have thought it, eh?

Yes, Apple’s new $799 128GB iPad didn’t get much of a mention in the mobile press last week - thanks to the new BlackBerry 10 platform and two new smartphones. Memories of Stephen Bates’s awkward BBC interviews were soon forgotten as the touchscreen Z10 appeared and quickly hit the shelves of UK retailers.

Apple has announced a 128GB version of its fourth-generation iPad, doubling the storage capacity from the previous 64GB maximum.

The fourth generation of iPad tablets was introduced in November last year.