Vodafone’s CTO Steve Pusey is to step down at the end of July 2015, and will be replaced by Ericsson head of networks, Johan Wibergh.

Pusey was the brains behind Project Spring, a multi-billion pound programme of network improvements currently underway at Vodafone, and masterminded its convergence strategy, acquiring fixed-line businesses in Germany, New Zealand, and Spain.

Wibergh, who will join the firm in May 2015 to undergo a transition period prior to Pusey’s retirement, has spent a number of years working in R&D and later business development roles before joining Ericsson in 1996. Following two separate postings to South America, he took up his current role in 2008.

Wibergh was responsible for leading all aspects of business strategy, R&D, product management and sales for Ericsson’s networking segment, which makes sales of around €13 billion (US$ 13.82 billion) per annum and has 27,000 employees. During his tenure Ericsson strengthened its position in mobile equipment, with a 35 per cent global market share.

On January 12, 2015, Apple filed a lawsuit asking the United States District Court for the Northern District of California to find that it does not infringe a small subset of Ericsson’s patents. In response Ericsson filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas requesting the court to determine if its global licensing offer for Ericsson’s standard essential patent portfolios to Apple is fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND).

Ericsson has today filed a complaint requesting a ruling on its proposed global licensing fees with Apple. During the past two years of negotiations, the companies have not been able to reach an agreement on licensing of Ericsson’s patents that enable Apple’s mobile devices to connect with the world and power many of their applications. Ericsson filed the suit in order to receive an independent assessment on whether Ericsson’s global licensing offer complies with Ericsson’s FRAND commitment.

Kasim Alfalahi, Chief Intellectual Property Officer at Ericsson, said: "Our goal is to reach a mutually beneficial resolution with Apple. They have been a valued partner for years and we hope to continue that partnership. Global sharing of technology has created the success of the mobile industry and allowed new entrants to quickly build successful businesses. We believe it is reasonable to get fair compensation from companies benefitting from the development we have made over the course of the last 30 years."

The global license agreement between Ericsson and Apple for mobile technology has expired and Apple has declined to take a new license on offered FRAND terms. Ericsson’s Q4 2014 IPR revenue will include payment from Apple under previous agreement.

Ericsson said it is committed to licensing its standard-essential patents on FRAND terms to provide a level playing field for all companies, lower the barriers of entry, and increase competition and innovation. As a result of standardisation and the FRAND principles, there are approximately 7.5 billion mobile subscriptions in the world today and mobile phones are the most sold consumer product globally.

Lenovo is expecting sales of Motorola phones to make up 40 per cent of its total smartphone shipments in the coming fiscal year beginning April 1, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In the current fiscal year, the figure stood at 30 per cent of the total 85 million smartphones sold by Lenovo and Motorola.

Lenovo closed its US$2.9 billion acquisition of Motorola from Google last October and earlier this week announced that Motorola smartphones will once again be sold in China, as well as other markets.

Motorola devices will be priced at more than US$400 while Lenovo smartphones will be below that figure.

According to Strategy Analytics, Lenovo captured five per cent market share of global smartphone shipments in Q314, while Motorola captured three per cent. The combined eight per cent share put it above the current number three player Xiaomi, after Apple and Samsung.

In China, Motorola will face fierce competition, with home-grown companies like Xiaomi and Huawei expecting to ship at least 100 million smartphones in 2015.

The three new devices that Motorola announced for China — the Moto X, new Moto X Pro and the Moto G, which supports LTE — are the first to be introduced by the company in the country since 2012, after Google withdrew the vendor from the market in 2013.

All three models will go on sale early this year.

Zain Group has announced that its mobile operation in Iraq launched 3G voice and data services across the country on January 1, 2015. The launch came following the finalisation of an agreement with Iraq’s Communications and Media Commission (CMC) in November 2014, which culminated in Zain Iraq making an initial 25% payment towards the overall 3G spectrum fee of US$307 million.

Three technology solution providers, namely Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia Networks were commissioned early in 2014 to expand and upgrade Zain Iraq’s network thus allowing the operator to quickly roll-out 3G commercial services across the country upon granting of the license.

Zain Iraq today employs over 3,000 Iraqi nationals and is the largest operator in the country with over 4,000 mobile network sites serving the largest customer base in the country.

Huawei is forecasting its 2014 revenue to increase 15 per cent to US$46 billion, driven in large part by its mobile device and enterprise businesses.

The company said its consumer business group was expected to generate revenue of US$11.8 billion, a 30 per cent increase from 2013.

The company’s CEO, Ken Hu, who shares the CEO duties in a six-month rotation, said in a message that more than 20 million smartphones with the Honor brand were sold through online channels worldwide, an increase of 30 times in just its first year.

As it pushes both the Huawei and Honor brands directly to consumers, the company said it has set up 450 retail shops worldwide. Sales through open channels (non-operator) now account for 45 per cent of total sales.

The Shenzhen-based company announced last week smartphone sales increased by nearly one-third in 2014 to reach US$11.8 billion as shipments increased 40 per cent to 75 million smartphones.

Although the company increased its smartphone shipments, the total fell short of its previously-stated goal of 80 million units.

Recent figures from analyst firm Gartner showed that Chinese players continued to expand their market share in the smartphone sector during the third quarter of 2014.

Huawei was ranked third for smartphone sales, just ahead of fellow Chinese players Xiaomi and Lenovo. The three companies saw their combined share of the global smartphone market increase by 4.2 percentage points year-on-year.

Huawei said it sold four million Ascend 7 units within six months of launch.