Over the past couple of years, a rising number of people have latched on to smart phones, abandoning the idea of having the simpler feature phones that they had been loyally using for years and switching instead to the high tech smart phones that have been hitting the markets from a variety of manufacturers over recent years.

Mobile phone users across the UK are becoming increasingly reliant on their smart phones, using them for everything from calls and texts to getting online and enjoying entertainment. Many others across Britain use their smart phones for business purposes, enabling them to enjoy convenience and ease as well as increased working flexibility.

A recent report has now revealed that when it comes to smart phone penetration amongst the population, Britain leads the way in Europe whilst Germany has the lowest level of smart phone penetration. The research was carried out by comScore and showed that out of all of the mobile phone users in the UK 52.6 percent were using smart phones whereas in Germany this figure dropped to 38.2 percent.

France was hot on the heels of Britain, coming in at 52.5 percent in terms of smart phone penetration whilst Spain and Italy had figures that were in the forties. The study also showed that 37 percent of smart phone users across the five nations had accessed news sites via a browser or app in January of this year, reflecting a 74 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Many people who are on contract plans for their mobile phones believe that they pretty much know how much they will be paying out each month, which is something that makes budgeting far easier. However, it is all too easy to exceed your allowance, particularly when it comes to voice and data allowances, and this can lead to soaring bills that have put many people through the misery of bill shock.

The UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, has now decided to take steps in order to try and help consumers on contract mobile phone contracts to avoid the misery of bill shock. The regulator has told mobile phone companies in the UK to allow contract customers to restrict the amount that they spend so that they can avoid unexpectedly sky high bills.

Ofcom stated that its own figures show that close to one and a half million people who are on mobile phone contracts have been hit with high bills that they were not expecting over the past six months alone. Ofcom has also said that if mobile phone firms do not agree to take steps to stop this from happening they may be forced to do so.

The regulator stated: “Ofcom believes mobile providers can do more to help customers control the amount they spend on their mobile phones. Ofcom has written to the mobile providers calling on them to do more to develop and promote ‘opt-in’ measures, such as tariffs that allow consumers to set their own financial caps or receive alerts about usage.”

With smart phones becoming more and more sophisticated and high tech, and with apps becoming increasingly invaluable, consumers these days are doing all sorts with their phones – and the things that they do via their phones is set to increase with more people expected to use their phones for things such as mobile banking and payments.

This claim comes following news from High Street banking giant Barclays that there is huge demand for its new mobile banking app, which enables consumers to transfer cash to one another through the use of their mobile handsets. The app is called Pingit and in the space of one week alone around 120,000 have downloaded it.

A number of security measures come with the app to provide users with peace of mind and security and with the use of the app users are able to transfer up to £300 to another contact simply by texting it to them via the app and by selecting the contact’s phone number.

The popularity of the app has seen it trending on Twitter recently. In a breakdown of figures, Barclays revealed that the average payment being made via the app by iPhone users was £19.20, by Android users £15.60 and by BlackBerry users was£12.05. From March onwards, the Pingit app will be available for customers of any bank, providing more people with a simple and fast way of transferring money.

An apology has been issued by the mobile network operator O2 after its customers’ mobile numbers were disclosed on sites that they were visiting on their smart phones. Many O2 customers visit a range of sites using their data allowance on their smart phones but do not expect their mobile numbers to then be disclosed to those sites.

However, a technical issue meant that this was exactly what happened, leaving mobile internet network users at risk of being flooded by calls from companies whose websites they had visited over the O2 network. O2 has now apologised for this technical problem, stating that it only usually passed on numbers to what it described as ‘trusted partners’.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has stated that it will be investigating in order to get a better idea of what happened and why this data breach occurred. In a recent blog post O2 stated: “We are in contact with the Information Commissioner’s office, and we will be co-operating fully.”

The company also said that the issue was a temporary one, which occurred when routine maintenance was being carried out. It stated: “Technical changes we implemented as part of routine maintenance had the unintended effect of making it possible in certain circumstances for website owners to see the mobile numbers of those browsing their site.”

Whilst Apple iPhones and other similar smart phones tend to look very sleek, stylish and modern, whilst also offering a range of features, they also pose a greater risk than some of the old style feature cell phones, particularly when it comes to the screen. The large screen of these smart phones is great to look at and use but means that your phone is more susceptible to screen damage because the screen makes up such a large part of the phone.

A recent report has shown, however, that a cracked or damaged screen is not something that would worry many consumers. Figures have shown that forty two percent of Apple iPhone customers in the UK are continuing to use their devices even though they have a damaged a cracked screen, which could have stemmed from dropping the phone or even sitting on it whilst it was in their pocket or bag.

Over one thousand iPhone owners were polled as part of the survey and more than half said that despite their broken screen the phone was working absolutely fine. Close to one third of those polled admitted that they did not want to make a claim on their insurance cover as a result of the broken screen.

In total around fifty seven percent said that they had broken their iPhone at some point in the past with around twenty seven percent causing damage to their iPhone within just weeks of first getting the handset. Forty one percent of those polled said that they did not take preventative measures to protect their handsets such as using screen protectors or cases.

Over recent years a rising number of smart phones from a wide range of manufacturers have been hitting the shelves in the UK, with new offering from high profile manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung and HTC amongst others. With the added bells and whistles that each version of the smart phones tend to have when they are brought out, many cannot resist dumping their old phones and rushing out to get a more high tech one.

One industry expert said that the increase in the number of smart phones coming onto the market has resulted in increased competition, which could help to fuel phone recycling amongst those that decide that they want to upgrade their phones and get one of the newer ones, leaving them with old ones that they need to get rid of.

Dominic Sunnebo, a senior official at consumer trends specialist Kantar Worldpanel, said that each time a new phone was released by Apple up to six million people in the UK alone rushed to buy it, which means that potentially there were millions of phones to recycle with the release of just one new smart phone from a high profile manufacturer.

He added that he though Nokia could have a big impact on recycling this year, stating: “I think Nokia is going to make a big impact in 2012. I think we’ve just seen sales of the Nokia Lumia 800 kick off and the first signs are pretty positive.”

It is reported that 2011 saw Brits have a very happy virtual Christmas as they unwrapped hundreds of thousands of new smart phones and tablets as well as downloading millions of apps.

Smart phones and internet tablets will have been at the top of many wish lists for Christmas gifts for 2011, and it appears that tens of thousands of people who were hoping for one of these devices were not disappointed. In fact, according to a recent report Brits had a very happy virtual Christmas as they unwrapped hundreds of thousands of new smart phones and tablets as well as downloading millions of apps.

Figures show that around half a million new smart phones and internet tablets were unwrapped by lucky Brits this year and a staggering four million apps were downloaded on Christmas Day alone. There was a massive 125 percent increase in the number of apps being downloaded on the Apple iOS and Android platforms according to the figures.

Data released by the mobile phone consultancy Distimo showed that the apps that were downloaded the most this Christmas were the iTunes 12 Days of Christmas app, Angry Birds, the BBC iPlayer app, and Facebook.

Peter Farago of Flurry Analytics stated: “This year was insane. We’ve seen holiday spikes like this in the last few Christmases. But the spike keeps getting bigger. The surprise was that the pop was so big, which means there has been a pent-up demand.”

Recently released figures have shown that the culmination of pent up frustration and impatience amongst Apple fans in October led to the sales of Apple iPhones for that month coming in at triple the previous three months.

The start of October this year saw fans of Apple technology pacing the floors with impatience as they neared the long awaited release of the Apple iPhone 4S, which many had been eager to get their hands on for a very long time. Whilst the new device was not quite the iPhone 5 that some had been hoping for this did not stop eager Apple lovers from wanting to snap one up as quickly as they possibly could.

The launch of the new device was also around the same sort of time when the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs sadly passed away, fuelling even more interest in the Apple product as it hit the shelves in the UK. As soon as it was released many people flocked, queued and even camped out to be amongst the first to have one of these phones in their hot, eager little hands!

All of this resulted in iPhone sales soaring and recently released figures have shown that the sale of Apple iPhones for the month of October was at triple the level of sales seen over the previous three months. Despite the iPhone have only a twenty seven percent share of the global smart phone market, the sales levels in the UK for October resulted in it taking nearly forty three percent of all UK smart phone sales.

One industry official stated: “The October launch of the hugely anticipated iPhone 4S has catapulted Apple into second place among operating systems based on the last 12 weeks of sales. However, if you just look at the month of October, Apple took a whopping share of all smartphone sales, giving it a significant lead over Android – a feat many thought was impossible.”

One of the great things about today’s range of exciting smart phones is that you can take great delight in downloading a variety of content whilst on the go with just the touch of a button or screen. However, what many phone owners forget is that they could end up paying the price for these downloads even if they are on so called unlimited data plans.

There are many people who have been caught out by this, as they have assumed that unlimited means that they can download to their heart’s content with the risk of any charges when in fact there have been limits in place and they have ended up paying through the nose for exceeding them.

The communications ombudsman is now calling on mobile phone companies to provide greater clarity when it comes to unlimited data plans so that consumers do not run the risk of bill shock stemming from not even realizing that they were exceeding their data limits because they did not know that there were any data limits in place.

The communications ombudsman, Lewis Shand Smith, said: “This is an emerging problem which we think could cause real consumer detriment – we want mobile phone companies to take action before it becomes more prevalent. Some mobile phone packages offer ‘unlimited’ downloads and consumers may believe that their mobile phone bill won’t go above a certain amount. Consumers may fail to realise is that there is a small asterisk next to the word ‘unlimited’ which refers to small print stating that there is in fact a limit which, if exceeded, will incur further charges.”

A recent report has shown that mobile phone data traffic is set to soar over the coming years, as a rising number of people are now using the wide range of smart phones on the market.

With the vast array of smart phones on the market these days, more and more people are now using these devices for everyday use, from business people who need them for their work to teens, parents, and in some cases even seniors. The wide range of features and facilities that have been offered by these phones has made them very popular with a wide demographic and more people are now using these devices more often.

With this in mind, a recent report has shown that mobile phone data traffic is set to soar over the coming years, as a result of the rising number of people who are now using the wide range of smart phones on the market. Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson has recently released figures suggesting that there has been a surge in mobile data traffic.

The company claims that over the next ten years mobile data traffic is set to increase tenfold according to its recent Traffic and Market Data report. The company said that measurements were “recorded over several years in live networks covering all regions of the world” in order to reach this conclusion with regards to projections. The company said: “Mobile broadband subscriptions will reach almost five billion in 2016, up from the expected 900 million by the end of 2011.”

The report also went on to state: “By 2016, users living (in urban areas covering) less than one percent of the Earth’s total area are set to generate around 60 percent of mobile traffic.”