Telecoms firms reported mixed fortunes in their fourth quarter earnings results, with Samsung having reason to celebrate, Motorola Mobility reporting an average quarter and AT&T taking a huge hit.

Google has announced new hardware manufacturers that have joined it as partners for its IPTV service Google TV. LG is the biggest name to join the Google TV ecosystem this year and will unveil a new line of Google TV sets running on its own L9 chipset at CES in Las Vegas next week.

Apple has had to admit defeat in its efforts to ban sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, after an Australian High Court has rejected an appeal to keep the device off shelves. Samsung, meanwhile, has also lost out in its attempts to ban sales of Apple’s iPhone 4S device in France, as the patent war between the two manufacturers drags on.

As the global director for terminals marketing at the Vodafone Group, Peter Becker-Pennrich holds decision making powers over a procurement strategy that deals in serious volumes. Vodafone buys between 60 and 70 million handsets each year, spending $8bn across it’s footprint, including affiliates and partner markets. In this exclusive interview Becker-Pennrich offers frank assessments of the different strategies adopted by the vendor community, their chances for success and the nature of the relationship – ever evolving – between operators, vendors and platform developers.