The Apple ‘antennagate scandal’ has received massive press attention, reflecting perhaps more the extent of Apple’s smartphone incumbency than the extent of the reception issues with the iPhone 4

The problem may be greater than Apple publicly admits to, but it is less than it first appeared to be. The resulting consumer confusion will not help unit sales, but we still expect them to grow, supported by a number of feature set advances in the iPhone 4

Android handset sales are growing very rapidly, and are in a sense ‘catching up’ with the iPhone; while Android may end up dominating the mid-range, the iPhone can still enjoy an (enlarged) position at the top end, provided it can maintain a premium price justification

Vodafone Europe’s revenue growth again notched up, increasing by 0.7ppts as reported or 0.3ppts in underlying terms, with minutes volume growth accelerating by 1.8ppts

This is a little disappointing in the context of the rate of reported GDP recovery, but consumer confidence, particularly in Southern Europe, has re-dipped in the last few months, making raw GDP figures less relevant than they once were

Data revenue is forging ahead, but voice pricing is steadily weakening, and with many offers linking voice, text and data into an inseparable bundle the former may be causing the later, implying that data’s contribution to overall revenue is easy to overestimate

UK reported mobile subscriber growth has returned to stronger growth over the past few quarters as the UK economy slowly recovers

O2 is still the leading operator in terms of both its own customer loyalty and share of other operators’ customers who intend to switch, though its lead has narrowed considerably on last year

UK handset sales are likely to continue to rise, with intention to replace in the next 12 months rising from 32% in 2009 to 35% in 2010, which is albeit still some way short of the 40% pre-recession figure

Data usage overall is up –the proportion of consumers regularly browsing news and information increased to 22% from 16% last year. However, this increase was not uniform; 5ppts of this was the direct result of there being more iPhones and BlackBerrys in use, and only 1ppt was due to increased usage on any other handset

Data on UK fixed line broadband revenueis sparse. Ofcom‘squarterly statistics do not include broadband revenue and neither Virgin Media nor TTG report it. Ofcom’sannual communications market report, published each year in August, includes an estimate of UK fixed broadband, dial-up and related revenue based on non-public data provided by operators. In June this year Ofcom published a provisional estimate of £3.3 billion for 2009 as part of the background to a discussion document on net neutrality

Overall reported revenue growth in the top 5 European markets increased by 1.6ppts, to growth of -1.7%. With little change in regulation during the quarter, underlying growth also saw a sharp uplift, rising 1.7ppts and building on the 0.4ppts increase seen in the last quarter. The European mobile market is now firmly in recovery following a very difficult 2009

There were approximately 18.7 million fixed broadband lines in the UK at the end of March 2010 including those used by small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

Year-on-year subscriber growth in Q1 increased for the first time since the early years of the industry, although the increase, from 5.7% to 5.9% was very slight. In our view it should be interpreted as a stabilisation

Looking at net additions in the quarter, Q1 saw the sequential growth drop back to a more normal level of 9% after the 54% spike in the previous quarter, but year-on-year growth, at 21%, was the first really substantial increase since Q3 2005, when market growth was coming to the end of its exponential phase

Subject to BBC Trust approval, Canvas looks almost certain to launch in spring 2011 after the OFT decided that it did not have the jurisdiction to review Canvas under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002. The OFT decision does not rule out complaints on other grounds, but the chances of persuading the regulators look very small

The launch of Canvas promises to strengthen significantly the free-to-air digital terrestrial platform, otherwise very limited compared with satellite and cable platforms in terms of bandwidth, but mass adoption poses numerous challenges and it is open to question whether Canvas will ever extend to more than half the DTT base

In the long term, it is hard not to see Canvas as an interim step in the growing convergence between the TV screen and the internet, raising the question of how successfully its PSB TV-centric approach can adapt to the coming challenges of the full blown digital age

C&W Worldwide’s first set of annual results since demerger were flattered by the inclusion of a full year of Thus

Nonetheless, management has continued to execute well despite difficult market conditions. Excellent cost control generated another year of strong underlying cash flow growth, albeit from a low base

Looking ahead there are grounds for continuing optimism, despite minimal guidance, although the rate of cash flow growth is set to drop, as cost reduction becomes progressively more challenging

In June, Apple’s new ‘iAd’ unit will begin serving ads within iPhone apps. iAd will compete with Google’s AdMob, paralleling Google Android’s competition with the iPhone, as the two companies contend to shape how people will use the mobile internet

The iPhone’s success is underpinned by apps, which draw in both consumers and publishers in a virtuous circle, but undercut Google’s search model. With iAd, Apple seeks to make sure iPhone apps remain the most profitable place for publishers

Steve Jobs has suggested a multi-billion dollar revenue potential – the true figure could be a tenth of that, but the real value of iAd will be in defending and supporting the iPhone

Vodafone Europe’s organic revenue growth improved again, from -3.2% to -2.4%, with it enjoying a fair share of the improvement in mobile market growth driven by improving economies across Europe

EBITDA margin fell, partly as a result of weak cost control but mainly because SAC/SRCs rose as Vodafone subsidised consumers getting more expensive handsets, which involves a short term (but not long term) profitability hit

Vodafone Europe could move back into positive revenue growth this year as it rides the wave of market recovery, but short term margin targets will be hard to hit as handset subsidies continue to rise