The global cut of around 1,500 positions from the Nokia Siemens networks (NSN), GSM and WiMAX technology divisions has been announced due to redundancies. However, New Zealand and Australian staff will not be losing any job.

After selling 12.2 million smartphones in the second quarter of this year, Taiwanese handset maker HTC aims to sell 13.5 million smartphones during the third quarter.

The target is nearly double the number of smartphones the Taiwanese firm sold in the third quarter of last year.

During the last quarter, HTC shipped 4.5 million less smartphones than Finnish handset maker Nokia. But, in case HTC manages to achieve the ambitious target for the third quarter, it would be on track to surpass Nokia in 2012.

Motorola Mobility on Thursday reported a net loss of $56 million, or $0.19 a share, for the second quarter, compared with net earnings of $80 million, or $0.27 a share, in the year ago period.

Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple delighted its shareholders by announcing jaw-dropping increase in revenue and profit for the three month ended June.

Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs announced that the company enjoyed a year-on-year increase of 90 per cent in revenue to $28.57 billion, while profit jumped 124 per cent to settle at $7.31 billion.

The company sold a total of 20.34 million iPhones during the quarter. The figure represents a jump of 140 per cent in the handset’s sales from the corresponding period of 2010.

Samsung, which stands second in the list of the world's biggest mobile phone manufacturer after Nokia, believes that it would achieve the top spot as the demand for its smartphones is growing rapidly.

Cupertino, Calif.-based electronics giant, Apple, has rolled out a free iTunes Festival London 2011 app to allow users to enjoy the music event, which will start off at the Roundhouse on July 1, 2011.