Vodafone Group announced a weak organic Q1 performance in its core European markets, although it claimed there is “evidence of commercial improvement” in Germany, Italy and the UK.

On an organic basis, group revenue fell by 4.4 per cent to GBP10.2 billion (US$17.31 billion), with service revenue falling by 4.2 per cent to GBP9.45 billion.

On a reported basis, revenue increased by 6.2 per cent, with service revenue up 6.4 per cent.

For its European arm, organic service revenue fell by 7.9 per cent to GBP6.45 billion. Contrastingly, its Africa, Middle East and Asia–Pacific (AMAP) business saw growth of 4.7 per cent to GBP2.89 billion.

For the AMAP region, Vodafone said that the rate of growth had slowed in India, following earlier price increases. But data revenue growth has picked-up, as 3G take up continued and the operator made further investments in its 3G network rollout.

Vodacom service revenue was flat, following a 50 per cent mobile termination rate cut in South Africa in April. Its international operations continued to grow off the back of customer growth, higher voice usage, and data take-up, although it also noted “intense price competition”.

Enterprise service revenue decreased, with Vodafone noting “some ongoing competitive pressure in our traditional national enterprise business”. It said that it saw strong growth in strategic areas, with Global Enterprise revenue increasing due to new account wins and extensions, and M2M revenue up 30.7 per cent, driven by increased innovation and a widening range of vertical markets”.

Capital expenditure during the period was GBP1.87 billion, up 83.4 per cent.

LG Electronics reported that a strong performance from its mobile unit, as well as its TV operation, led to a 165 per cent increase in Q2 group profit, as the company also saw record smartphone shipments.

LG Mobile Communications shipped 14.5 million smartphones during the three months, a 20 per cent year-on-year increase. More than one-third of all LG smartphones sold this year included LTE connectivity.

And this has translated to strength in the numbers. An operating profit of KRW85.9 billion US($83.4 million) for the mobile unit ends three consecutive quarters of loss.

Mobile Communications sales increased 16 per cent year-on-year to KRW3.62 trillion, and the company said this is its highest since the first quarter of 2010.

On a group level, LG reported a net profit of KRW411.8 billion, up 164.8 per cent year-on-year, on revenue of KRW15.37 trillion, up 0.9 per cent.

Facebook’s focus on mobile continued to pay off in the second quarter as the sector accounted for a record 62 per cent of total advertising revenue.

For the quarter ended June 30, Facebook reported total revenue of US$2.91 billion, up 61 per cent year-on-year. Net income on a GAAP basis was US$1.09 billion, more than double the 2013 figure of US$488 million.

Total advertising revenue increased 67 per cent to reach US$2.68 billion, meaning mobile generated US$1.66 billion. Mobile advertising revenue made up just 42 per cent of the total in the same quarter last year and 59 per cent in the first quarter of 2014.

Mobile ad revenue grew 151 per cent year-on-year, with mobile monthly active users totalling 1.07 billion as of June 30, a 31 per cent increase compared with a year earlier. There were a total of 1.32 billion monthly active users across the social network, a 14 per cent increase.

Facebook had an average of 654 million mobile daily active users during June, up 39 per cent year-on-year from 469 million in June 2013. Total daily active users stood at 829 million, a 19 per cent year-on-year increase.

As Nokia transitions to being an infrastructure-led business following the sale of the bulk of its loss-making handset business to Microsoft, its Q2 results show improving prospects for the company.

“This performance, along with the many conversations I have had with customers, partners, employees and others in my first quarter as CEO, gives me a high degree of confidence about our future,” Rajeev Suri, president and CEO of Nokia, said.

The company issued a positive outlook for the rest of the year, stating it expects full-year non-IFRS operating margin for the Networks business to be “at or slightly above” its target long-term range of five per cent to 10 per cent. This compares with an earlier guidance of “towards the higher end” of that range.

It also said it “expects Nokia Networks’ net sales to grow on a year-on-year basis in the second half of 2014.

For the second quarter, it reported a (non-IFRS) operating profit of €281 million (US$377 million) for its biggest business unit, Nokia Networks, down 14 per cent year-on-year. Revenue in the unit was €2.57 billion, down eight per cent.

While sales in the Mobile Broadband business group increased by six per cent to €1.36 billion, the performance of its Global Services unit was less impressive, with sales decreasing by 19 per cent to €1.19 billion.

The company noted that it had divested businesses that were not consistent with its strategic focus, and exited certain customer contracts and countries. For the Mobile Broadband unit, the company benefited from strong sales in both LTE and core networks, partially offset by lower sales of radio technologies other than LTE.

The company noted lower recognition of revenue related to smartphone sales by the former Nokia Devices & Services unit and reduced sales to personal navigation device customers, offset by Microsoft becoming a more significant licensee and sales to vehicle customers.

Nokia also today named Ramzi Haidamus as president of the Technologies unit and member of the group leadership team, effective September 3. He has spent the bulk of his career at Dolby Laboratories.

The company also saw sales of €497 from its “discontinued operation” (the former Devices & Services unit), down from €2.58 billion. The unit was sold to Microsoft during the second quarter.

Operating profit for this unit was €3.08 billion, compared with a prior-year loss of €126 million, due to the gain of €3.2 billion resulting from the sale.

On a group level, the company reported a profit attributable to shareholders of €2.51 billion, compared with a prior year loss of €266 million, on revenue of €2.94 billion, down from €3.16 billion.

For 2014, the company benefitted from a €2.54 billion gain related to the discontinued Devices & Services business. In 2013, this unit contributed a loss of €168 million.

On an operating level, the company saw a profit of €284 million, compared with a prior-year profit of €12 million.

Following completion of the Microsoft deal, the company ended the period with net cash of €6.5 billion, compared with €2.1 billion at the end of Q1.

Qualcomm announced results for the third quarter of fiscal 2014 ended June 29, 2014, which saw revenues up nine per cent to US$6.81 billion, and operating income come in a US$2.08 billion, up 24 per cent year-on-year and four per cent sequentially.

Net income for the period amounted to US$2.24 billion, up 42 per cent year-on-year and 14 per cent sequentially.

“We are pleased to report another record quarter with revenues, earnings per share and chip shipments reaching all-time highs, driven by broad-based demand for our industry-leading 3G/4G chipset solutions,” said Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm. “Looking forward, although we have lowered our near-term financial outlook for the licensing business, we are pleased to be raising our fiscal year earnings per share guidance on better than expected performance in our semiconductor business.”