The worldwide mobile phone market grew at a healthy pace during Q3 of 2007 with vendors shipping a total of 289 million units, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. Worldwide shipments were up 9.0% from the previous quarter and 13.8% from the same quarter a year ago. The market report includes a detailed description of the individual results that have been made by the top 5 cell phone vendors.

Apple announced that it has expanded its iTunes Plus offering to over two million tracks and lowered the price of all iTunes Plus tracks to just 99 cents. All iTunes Plus tracks feature DRM-free music with high quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings. The iTunes Plus catalog is now the largest DRM-free catalog in the world, and includes artists from Sub Pop, Nettwerk, Beggars Group, IODA, The Orchard and many others, along with EMI’s digital catalog.

Deutsche Telekom AG's Group company, T-Mobile Netherlands, has concluded a contract with France Télécom for the acquisition of the Dutch telecommunications provider, Orange Netherlands. The parties agreed on a purchase price of about EUR 1.3 billion on a debt/ cash free basis. The Works Council of Orange Netherlands was informed and involved in this process in accordance with Dutch law. The European Commission has already approved the acquisition of Orange Netherlands by Deutsche Telekom AG. Deutsche Telekom AG expects the deal to be closed on October 1, 2007.

There is a new class of devices emerging on the horizon: a convergence of everyday consumer electronics and mobile broadband. Consumer electronics increasingly will include Wi-Fi for connectivity within the home and to the Internet; Wi-Fienabled portable consumer electronics devices are a bridge to the mobile consumer electronics devices. Service providers will offer services to these devices in addition to handsets and laptops. SK Telecom is doing this today for Samsung’s HSDPA-enabled camera, and Sprint Nextel and Clearwire will heavily promote connectivity for a wide range of WiMAX-enabled consumer electronics devices.

Truvo, a leading local search and advertising company operating across seven countries, has launched a downloadable Java search service for mobile users in The Netherlands based on mobilePeople’s popular liquid platform. Truvo, formally called World Directories, is the first international directory publisher to make a number of different content sources searchable next to their own yellow and white pages. Truvo’s searchable content also includes full news content from De Telegraaf, weather, a mobile web search and ringtones and wallpapers. The integration of different content increases Truvo’s mobile traffic and ensures the stickiness of the service with users.

Nokia Siemens Networks and Wipro Technologies, the global IT arm of Wipro Limited, have agreed on the terms and conditions of a business transfer and asset sale of Nokia Siemens Networks radio access related R&D activities in Berlin. All Radio Access R&D activities currently performed in Berlin are planned to be provided to Nokia Siemens Networks by Wipro Technologies in the future. As part of the partnership, 58 employees of Nokia Siemens Networks are planned to be fully integrated into the operations of Wipro Technologies. Through this agreement, Nokia Siemens Networks will leverage Wipro Technologies’ global expertise as one of the largest independent R&D services providers in the world.

Apple and Orange announced that Orange will be the French carrier for the Apple iPhone-when it makes its debut next month. The Apple iPhone combines three devices into a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and the best mobile Internet device ever-all based on Apple's multi-touch interface and pioneering software that allows users to control the Apple iPhone with just a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers. Apple sold its one millionth iPhone just 74 days after it went on sale. iPhone is scheduled to go on sale next month and will be sold in France through Orange's online and direct retail stores. iPhone will be available in an 8GB version for EUR399 including VAT.

According to a new market report from The NPD Group early buyers demonstrate that the Apple iPhone is managing to bridge the gap between content-focused feature phones and productivity-focused smartphones. NPD’s iPhone Report is a top-line view of initial buyers of the Apple iPhone, which provides insight into how Apple’s entry into the market is affecting mobile phone product sales among consumers in the United States.

FilesAnywhere announced upgrades to its mobile file storage web site for enhanced user functionality. Users can login to their account and access and share all file types from their web enabled mobile phone. The mobile file storage web site is compatible with the Apple iPhone, Palm and Blackberry mobile devices, devices running Windows Mobile software and other web enabled handsets. New mobile file storage access features were added for web enabled mobile handsets, such as online file viewing without downloading and file sharing functionality. No software installation is required to utilize the mobile site. Mobile web capabilities are available with all FilesAnywhere plans, including free 1GB storage accounts.

Data from Wireless World Forum’s “Egypt Mobile Market 2006” statistical handbook reveals that the Egyptian mobile market will triple the number of unique subscribers in the country within a period of three years. In 2004 there were 7 million unique owners of mobile phones, by 2007 this number will more than triple to 23 million.