420 million smartphones are expected to be sold this year, Samsung and Apple manufacturers being this year’s winners.

Latest report shows a 77% growth of mobile data usage for the first half of 2011, out of which YouTube holds almost one quarter. But social media platforms show the most impressive growth, Twitter by 297% and Facebook by 166%. Surprisingly, the Android market activity is up to 196%, while Apple App Store has ‘only’ 84% of the overall app store download traffic. More details in the Allot Mobile Report.

Tough times for Angry Birds and game developers? Rivio, the company behind the Angry Birds game app, is being sued over game mechanics (buying levels inside the game) which seem to have been patented by a small company from Marshall, Texas. Lodsys actually had patents granted since 1999, being already involved in legal battles with Adidas, HP or New York Times. Do you think the claim may be supported in court? It will surely affect many gaming apps. Read more here.

This year the number of worldwide mobile payment users may reach 141.1 million, a 38.2 percent increase from 2010, when mobile payment users reached 102.1 million, according to Gartner, Inc. The mobile payment volume is forecast to a total $86.1 billion, up 75.9 percent from 2010 volume of $48.9 billion.

We are very pleased to announce the launch of a new iPhone and iPad app for the brand Great British Chefs. The app brings together 12 Michelin starred chefs, 180 exquisite recipes and delivers extraordinary menus, tips and stories about the chefs.

Great British Chefs is a new brand that celebrates and champions the best chefs in Britain, who cook in their restaurants on a daily basis and whose food is distinctive and crafted with love and care.

The new app includes chefs from all over the UK. Nathan Outlaw from Cornwall, Daniel Clifford in Cambridge, Shaun Rankin in Jersey and Martin Wishart in Edinburgh as well as one of only 11 female chefs with a Michelin star, Frances Atkins in Yorkshire.

The new app is compatible with iPhone (iOS 3.2 or later), iPad and iPad2.  Great British Chefs is available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Entertainment category. The app is regularly priced at £4.99 (GBP).

Apple is doing great, after selling a record 20.3 million iPhones over the quarter, a rise of 140% on the same period a year ago, and a record 9.25 million iPads, up 183%. It’s been an incredible period for Apple, with their share price constantly rising in the last weeks. More details here.

Apple - HTC patent battle may have seemed finished after a judge decided this week that 2 of the 10 proposed Apple patents from the case have been infringed upon by the Taiwanese producer. But unexpected help comes from whom you may expect less. A statement from Eric Schmidt, Google executive chairman, at a Google mobile conference in Tokyo, took many by surprise. Although it’s not clear how Google can support HTC, it looks like Google may be the helping hand HTC needs right now. More details here and here

In-app advertising, what’s the future? It may be a bright future, if you look at the expenditures in 2010, representing 5% out of the total current mobile ad spending. Angry Birds is already serving ads through their gaming app, it is interesting to see how the brands are going to ‘embrace’ the future of mobile advertising. More details here.

Android has been reporting sales growth in terms of sold devices but independent agency Millennial Media shows a different situation interms of ad impressions on specific platforms. Report shows iOS impressions growth by 18% quarter-over-quarter, while Android impressions grew 11% quarter-over-quarter. RIM impressions grew 29%, Symbian impressions grew 13% and Windows Phone 7 impressions grew 31%, all quarter-over-quarter. Although Android still has 54% of the total impression share, this is the same percentage since May which does not sound like good news, having the slowest growth out of all the smartphone platforms for mobile ad impressions.

34% of iPhone owners think the ‘4’ in iPhone 4 stands for 4G, Retrevo survey shows. Plus, a quarter of Blackberry users also share the same opinion which may determine handsets producers and mobile operators to spend more into making their users understand what 4G stands for.