Mark Bridge writes:

Easter is often seen as a time for customs and rules – whether it’s giving up sugar for Lent or waiting until Sunday morning to eat your chocolate eggs – and this year the mobile industry seems to have joined in.

Mark Bridge writes:

Mobile World Congress is over for another year. Also gone is the mobile industry’s sudden obsession with public transport and student protests in Barcelona. But away from the local news, what’s been going on?

James Rosewell writes:

Microsoft’s Windows 8 announcement today is as significant to the mobile industry as Apple’s iPad launch 2 years ago. Windows 8 will work on tablets, ultra books, desktops, laptops and 82” big screens. Not only that but it’ll support touch on all these devices.

“We're in a world where tablets are about touch, and PCs are about keyboard. We're changing those assumptions” Steven Sinofsky President, Windows and Windows Live Division says.

Mark Bridge writes:

I’m not the first person to point out that mobile phone patent battles are raging all around us. They’ve been going on for years.

However, the topic of FRAND patents - those designated as ‘industry standards’ and therefore required to be licensed on Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory terms - has become an increasingly newsworthy topic.

In the last couple of weeks we’ve reported on an EC investigation into Samsung’s licensing of mobile patents and a Motorola/Apple legal battle that involves FRAND licensing.

Mark Bridge writes:

We’re starting the week with breaking (but not entirely unexpected) news that RIM has a new CEO. Just one, not two. We’ll be talking much more about him in Wednesday’s podcast. In fact, RIM’s announcement concludes a week that’s been packed with big names - and big money as well.