Last year smartphone users spent $8 billion (around £5 billion) for paid apps in the five biggest application stores: the Apple App Store, Google Play, BlackBerry App World, Nokia Ovi Store and Windows Phone Store.

That’s a 27% increase from the previous year, according to a new report from mobile research specialists research2guidance.

Carphone Warehouse Group plc has published an interim management statement for the third quarter of its financial year, covering the three months until the end of December 2012.

Its CPW Europe retail business - a 50% joint venture with Best Buy - saw like-for-like revenue up 7.8%, with UK like-for-like revenue up 16% from the same quarter in 2011.

Two television advertisements for Phones 4u have been judged misleading by the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority.

The ads, which showed a number of characters being offered mobile phone upgrades, concluded with the message “Upgrades for you and you and you at Phones 4u”.

James Rosewell writes:

Huawei is a company one can’t miss at Mobile World Congress. They bring their own building!  Plus last year a wonderful “Pegasus” flying horse sculpture made using Ascend handsets was proudly displayed next to the main fountain to hail the launch of the Ascend series of handsets.

Huawei has been busy following MWC12. They now run major parts of Everything Everywhere, Three and O2’s network in the UK. On a less positive note they’re not welcome in the US.

But how has the devices side of the business performed?

Nokia has published its fourth quarter and full-year financial results for 2012, moving back into profit during Q4 for the first time in over a year.

However, the annual figure still shows a loss and the company is proposing not to make a dividend payment to shareholders.