Since the release of the iPhone 5, half of Verizon's data traffic is carried on its LTE network

Half of the data traffic on US carrier Verizon Wireless is now carried on its LTE network, its CEO announced last week at CES, marking a significant increase on its October 2012 watermark, when just 35 per cent of its data traffic was LTE.

Apple’s iPhone 5, its first LTE enabled handset, was released in September 2012 and is likely to account for much of the data boost. Verizon’s CEO Lowell McAdam, said that by the end of the fourth quarter 2012, 23 per cent of its customer base were using LTE enabled phones, up from just 16 per cent at the end of the third quarter.

McAdam also revealed that of all the new postpaid contracts added in the fourth quarter, 85 per cent of these purchased LTE enabled phones.

Mike Haberman, vice president of network engineering for Verizon Wireless told Fierce Wireless that Verizon’s LTE network now has a population overage of nearly 274 million, nearly 90 per cent of its footprint  and that it expects for complete its LTE rollout by the middle of 2013, six months ahead of schedule. He also said that by 2014 plans to combine AWS spectrum with 700MHz spectrum using carrier aggregation for a speed increase.

The US and Canada currently has the largest LTE subscriber base in the word, at nearly 30 million, compared with just under 28m for the Asia Pacific region, according to the latest Informa WCIS stats.

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Apple has won $1bn in damages from Samsung over the Korean vendor's Android portfolio

The ongoing patent wars between mobile device manufacturers featured a decisive battle late Friday, when the jury deliberating on the argument between US company Apple and South Korea’s Samsung found against the Android-focused firm. The US jury awarded Apple damages of $1bn, after ruling that Samsung did indeed infringe several of Apple’s patented designs and features.

Apple is seeking sales bans on 17 Android devices, continuing the crusade of late Apple leader Steve Jobs to “destroy” the rival operating system.

In another development it emerged during the case that Apple also licensed several of its technologies to Microsoft during the development of the latest Windows Phone software. Leaked memos reveal, however, that Apple refused to strike and settlements with the Android camp out of court.

In the aftermath of the ruling, share price falls cut around $12bn off the face of Samsung’s market value.

Yet the case is far from over. Samsung will of course appeal the ruling, and Google has its own patent infringement lawsuit pending against Apple. So it might be that Apple and the Android camp are forced to reach some kind of cross licensing deal, or even see some of their patents invalidated during the course.

As for the impact on Android itself, software can be re-engineered, and many of the patents at the heart of the Samsung-Apple case were Samsung specific, related to non-standard features and hardware design, which limit the impact on the underlying software.

AuthenTec's fingerprint technology could be key to Apple's mobile payment efforts

Apple has agreed to acquire fingerprint security firm AuthenTec in a deal worth around $356m. AuthenTec’s fingerprint technology has been used in mobile phones in Japan for authentication of mobile payments, and Apple is expected to bring those services to more markets.

The firm will pay $8 per share in a deal that also includes a non-exclusive right to license AuthenTec’s patents for $115m as well as an additional payment of $7.5m for product development work. The takeover is expected to close in the third quarter of 2012.

The next version of the iPhone is expected by many analysts to include some form of mobile payment technology, given that the firm’s rivals are preparing, or have launched, mobile payment solutions. Rival Google launched Google Wallet over a year ago, and Microsoft has revealed that there will be a wallet feature on the Windows Mobile 8 operating system when it is launched.

Apple has already announced the “Passbook” feature in its next operating system, iOS 6, which is due to be launched later this year. Passbook is a mobile app for storing tickets, coupons and loyalty cards, but does not facilitate mobile payments.  However, AuthenTec’s embedded fingerprint scanners and other identity-related software could be key to Apple’s plans to offer a mobile payment mechanism in future devices.

“The situation with mobile money and introducing it into handsets – it’s one of those areas where carriers have felt they have an important role to play and that may turn out to be true in the long run,” said Tony Cripps, principal analyst in Ovum Telecoms’ devices and platforms group. “But as I think we’ve so often seen with new technology around mobile phones, it often takes the OEMs to push something to make it happen.”

He cited the example of smartphone apps, as it took OEMs, such as Apple, to take the lead to make apps popular among end consumers.

“Mobile money may well be one of those things. Apple is now buying its way into that area, and it’s got a huge install base to aim at.”

Cripps added that, with operators, software players and equipment manufacturers all launching mobile payment offerings, the future for mobile payments is looking fragmented.

“It might turn out that there will have to be room for more than one [type of mobile wallet]. Microsoft, Apple and Google are at loggerheads and we may not end up with one solution; companies will be pushing their own agendas for their own reasons. That said, it would be beneficial, particular for merchants and credit card clearing companies, if the situation was simplified, but that’s not always how these things work out.”

2Q12 was the first full quarter that the iPhone 4S was on the market

Despite operator frustrations at the huge markups they have to pay on iPhone devices, Apple’s momentum has not been suppressed and it has once again posted sharp year-on-year increases in revenue and profit in its latest quarterly earnings.

The firm’s revenue grew by almost 60 per cent year-on-year, from $24.7bn in 2Q11 to $39.2 in 2Q12. In addition, net profit almost doubled, rising to $11.6bn from the $6bn recorded in the same quarter a year ago.

Analysts said that Apple owes a great deal of its success to the substantial markups that it attaches to its products. David McQueen, principal analyst at Informa, said: “It costs Apple about $200 to make a single iPhone, but they’re selling to operators at around $600 to $700,”

McQueen added that operator resentment at these charges could explain a sequential drop in revenue (which was $46.3bn in 1Q12), and a fall in the firm’s share price shortly before the results were announced.

“Some operators, particularly in the US, are not happy, which is why Apple’s share price dipped.” he said.

“They are beginning to get fed up because this is having an impact on their bottom line. But on the flip side, if they don’t sell the iPhone, their competitors will and that will lead to churn. They have to either put up or shut up.”

Apple sold 88 per cent more iPhones in the quarter compared with the same period a year ago, with its sales volume reaching 35.1 million units. It also sold 11.8 million iPads – a 151 per cent unit increase on the same quarter last year.

McQueen said that the continued strong performance is due to a number of factors: it was the first full quarter in which the iPhone 4S had been on the market; the new iPad was launched; Apple made its entrance into the Chinese market and; the firm began keeping older models of the iPhone in certain markets, at reduced prices.

CEO Tim Cook was, of course, “thrilled” with the results and Apple’s CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, added that in the third quarter, the firm expects to see revenue reach around $34bn.

McQueen added that Informa Telecoms & Media fully expects the next iPhone to be LTE-enabled and for it to have a larger screen to make better use of the richer browsing experience that LTE promises.

Lee Epting, group director of content services at Vodafone

Some applications available through Apple’s App Store are failing to meet Vodafone’s internal quality standards, accessing APIs that are non-essential for the applications’ functions, according to the international carrier’s group director of content services, Lee Epting.

“What we’ve found is that there’s lots of stuff getting into the Apple App Store that we don’t think Apple would be happy with,” Epting told Telecoms.com. “We don’t know why; maybe they’ve dropped the bar. But when we quality check these apps they fail our standards, mainly for using APIs not required for the application. So we’re more stringent than other application stores,” she said.

Vodafone recently launched a branded store within the Android market and a curated, multi-platform store of its own in response to what it has identified as a confusingly wide array of applications in the market place.

If Vodafone is correct in its assessment there is a new generation of smartphone users who are clamouring to be let back into the walled garden. It could be argued that the growing adoption of HTML5 as a rich web technology will exacerbate this problem as many see an HTML5 site as a cheaper alternative to a full blown mobile application.

Epting conceded that HTML5 gives brands the ability to bypass all other channels in the delivery of their solutions but argued that the web is, “just another touch-point. Users come in via the browser and are presented an app to download to the desktop.”

She told Telecoms.com that users exploring the device default to an app-centric world and, while widgets as a concept are becoming increasingly dynamic, there is more richness available  from native apps. “I have yet to see one new paradigm put another paradigm to death. Just look at Java,” she said. “It’s still a primary breadwinner for a lot of app developers today and is a mainstream in the emerging markets. Java will still be around for some time because people with feature phones will want content too.”

Qualcomm's Gobi 4000 could be the integrated LTE/3G chipset that Apple is waiting to include in the iPhone 5

Chipmaker Qualcomm has announced the Gobi 4000, its first integrated chipset that supports LTE and various 3G flavours such as HSPA+, dual-carrier HSPA+, CDMA2000, and 1xEV-DO Rev A and B. The chipset package, which consists of the MDM9600 and MDM9200 chips, is the first integrated 3G/LTE chipset available from Qualcomm, which should bring the increasing efficiency and improved packaging that has prevented Apple from introducing LTE into the iPhone 4GS.

Apple uses Qualcomm previous generation chips for the baseband of its current iPhones and the 3G enabled iPads, making it likely that the new chips will provide a straight upgrade path to an LTE capable iPhone 5 and iPad 3.

According to Cristiano Amon, senior vice president of product management for Qualcomm, the Gobi 4000 chipset will offer, “an uncompromised mobile connectivity experience, both in terms of download speeds and flexibility.” The company said that Gobi 4000-based modules are now available from Novatel Wireless and Sierra Wireless.

While there are many LTE enabled handsets on the market, these involve using a separate 3G and LTE chipsets, which results in an poor battery life, a fact recently criticised by Tommy Ljunggren, head of system development at TeliaSonera in an interview with Telecoms.com, who described them as, “basically a dongle and phone that they glue together. They work – just not for long.”

Ljunggren also said that LTE in the iPhone 5 would be was essential if Apple was to maintain its market share. “It will be a bad mistake not to include LTE in the iPhone 5, as otherwise they will really be run over by the others.”

The FT has pulled its app from the App Store

The Financial Times (FT) has had its iPad app removed from iTunes following a dispute with Apple.

The decision was made after the FT refused to comply with Apple’s demand that is collects a 30 per cent cut from all in-app payments and subscriptions, and has ownership of all customer data that is collected.

The FT has instead been pointing users to its web browser-based app for the iPad and iPhone, which offers more features than the native app, and is written in HTML 5.

“The FT iPad and iPhone apps will no longer be available to new users through iTunes. We’re encouraging our readers to switch immediately to the new FT web app, as many new features and sections will be added over the coming weeks,” said a spokesperson from the FT.

“iTunes will remain an important channel for new and existing advertising based apps.”

However, the move should not have too much of a negative impact on FT’s readership figures, as it has already garnered a strong reputation among iPad users, according to Adrian Drury, consultant and lead analyst for media tech, broadcast and telecoms at Ovum.

“The value of the App Store is that it offers access to traffic that goes through its search bar,” he said.

“But the FT has been very clever; it has already created a solid critical mass and a solid reputation for apps, and it began moving users away from its native iTunes in March this year.”

“Other publishers have been exploring the idea of exiting iTunes because of to Apple’s demands, but they first have to get to that point where they have that critical mass of users. The FT has had its iPad app on iTunes since day one, and it has the reputation and a large user base, but other firms don’t have that critical mass of users that they can then concentrate on converting them to browser apps, rather than their native apps.”

Skype has launched a cross-platform video calling service

Skype has upped its game in the mobile market, with the announcement of a “killer ability” that has long been waited for: cross platform video calling.

Users of Skype’s Android app will finally be able to make video calls, not only to other Android users but also to iPhones, laptops and PCs from their smartphones. According to a post on Skype’s official blog, users will also be able to send SMSs via the service “at a far cheaper rate than most networks.” The video calling service will work over both wifi and 3G connections.

In addition to the video calling, Skype has said it has completely redesigned its Android user interface to facilitate easier navigation through contacts, profiles and the dialling pad. A new mood message box in the app menu is designed to give a Facebook-style feel to the application, allowing users to “share how you are feeling, what you’ve seen or what you’re up to.”

The video calling service requires devices to run Android 2.3 and above and have a front-facing camera. Currently supported handsets include Google’s Nexus S and Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Neo, with plans to roll out support for other Android devices “very soon.”

Dolby is suing RIM over alleged infringement of its audio compression patents

Research in Motion (RIM), already under pressure from declining sales and a pending class action suit from disgruntled shareholders, is being sued by audio giant Dolby for alleged patent infringement.

The lawsuit, which was filed jointly in both America and Germany yesterday, centres around patents for audio compression technology that allows for high quality sound using limited wireless bandwidth and storage space. In addition to financial damages, Dolby is seeking to halt sales of RIM devices alleged to use the technology.

Dolby claims that, despite discussions, RIM is refusing to pay licensing fees for the technology, unlike other mobile manufacturers. According to the Wall Street Journal, licensing accounts for the lion’s share of Dolby’s revenue, making up for around 80 per cent of its total over the past two years. The WSJ says the company made $214.6m in licensing revenues in the quarter ending April 1^st this year, a ten per cent increase over the previous year.

As smartphone use explodes, manufacturers are increasingly looking for ways to deliver streaming audio without drastically increasing battery and other resource drain. As such, the mobile device market looks like a promising revenue stream for Dolby, which is an established player in audio processing technologies.

It’s been a difficult year for RIM. Earlier this week, shareholders launched a class action suit against the company, claiming the company issued misleading financial data and calling for a complete overhaul of the leadership. This comes on the back of a less-than-stellar foray into the tablet space, including a product recall following the discovery of a critical software flaw in its PlayBook. The recent abandonment of its Blackberry devices by the US Government in favour of iPhone and Android devices is adding to the company’s woes. RIM has yet to make any statement regarding the suit.