Africa today is a safer, more stable and prosperous region. The world's attention is increasingly turning to Africa, as one of the few places left where significant growth can be achieved, but success depends on understanding this diverse continent. Matthew Angus, Research Director of KLA, a South African based research agency, talks to us about how mobile research is gaining traction as the best way to gain insights into African markets.

In France the iPhone 4S has a higher device satisfaction than the iPhone 5, and in Germany, the iPhone 5 doesn’t even rank in the top 5 devices for user satisfaction.

Despite Apple's success, the much anticipated iPhone 5 only ranks fifth in device satisfaction in a study of 93,825 US mobile users, behind four Android powered devices.

Huawei is to launch a low-cost Windows Phone 8 device in seven African markets this quarter as part of a partnership with Microsoft to drive up smartphone penetration on the continent. Currently in Africa, smartphones account for only about 10 percent of total phones in the market.

This is just one of the themes being discussed at the 2013 Mobile Web East Africa Conference in Kenya. This promises to be a fascinating conference, exploring how mobile has changed the lives of African people, a subject we’re particularly interested in.

Global mobile ad revenue was $9.7bn in 2012, and will increase by 17.5% between 2012 and 2013, to reach $11.4bn. The Asia Pacific region continues to lead the world, with $4.3bn, 44% of revenue, made here in 2012. China and India will increasingly contribute to this.

M-Pesa mobile banking is used by 17m subscribers in Kenya and 9m in Tanzania in place of a traditional bank account. Users can access the m.fastjet.com site to book flights and then receive a unique booking number by SMS, with payments made via mobile to fastjet’s business number.

Just three months after the launch of the UK's first 4G network, Everything Everywhere (EE) has unveiled what it describes as "new price plan offers" to offer customers more choice.

Given all the headaches, why has mapping moved to the centre of some of the most contentious fights in tech, including Apple's escalating feud with Google? Mobile software competitors - Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, and a host of others -all share the same hunch that maps sit at the core of our digital future.

UK retailers experienced a surge in visits from mobile phones over the Christmas period, with traffic increasing by up to 100% between December 24 and 27.