Seems, that OpenGLES is disabled totally as in previous versions. Maybe some code merge hickup occured?
And then compressing that texture (called a texture atlas btw) with PVRTC. However, the worst offenders for PVR performance is alpha testing/blending, which I bet you cannot turn off easily, so performance will always be abysmal.
I have no ideas would it be faster. Are you thinking starting time (as images are loaded on start) or something else?