Samsung Electronics, a leading mobile phone provider, today announced the launch of its newest full-touch screen mobiles – S5600 and S5230. With these latest products, Samsung is able to enhance its position as a leading player in the hugely popular touch screen mobile market.

“Samsung S5600 and S5230 are significant products to our full-touch screen mobile portfolio, bringing stylish designs and intuitive user interfaces,” said JK Shin, executive vice president and head of Mobile Communications division at Samsung Electronics.

“We are committed to strengthening our portfolio of full-touch phones by introducing a variety of handsets to suit every lifestyle. These two new products will bring the exciting experience of touch to mobile phone users and will further enhance Samsung’s leadership in the full-touch market,” he added.

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T-Mobile UK's technical director, Emin Gurdenli, has hinted in a video interview with ZDNet's Senior Reporter, David Meyer, that the operator will soon upgrade its HSPA based Mobile Broadband (3G) network to work at downstream speeds of up to 14.4Mbps. That is the maximum HSPA can achieve.

However Gurdenli revealed plans to trial the enhanced form of HSPA+ later this year. Spanish trials of similar technology by Vodafone recently achieved speeds of over 20Mbps in a test environment (here). There were also hints of next generation LTE (Long-Term Evolution, 4G) Mobile Broadband services:

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Vendor to appeal court decision to stop it selling products based on IPCom's technology.

Handset maker HTC Corp. lost a patent suit in Germany, the company said Friday. HTC has been ordered by Germany's Mannheim Regional Court to stop selling products using Munich-based IPCom GMBH's technology, HTC said in a statement.

"HTC is disappointed with the recent judgment, as we do not believe the patent has been infringed or is indeed valid," HTC said in a another statement. It will appeal the court's decision, the statement said.

Handset maker's first touch screen smartphone struggled to connect to 3G networks in New York, Chicago.

Nokia Corp. said it has resolved the connection issues with its touchscreen XpressMusic 5800 handset, and expects it to be back on the market soon.

"We have concluded this was an isolated situation related to a configuration change in the North American variant," said Nokia spokesman Joseph Gallo."We have now adjusted the configuration and will resume sales shortly."

On Monday, Nokia acknowledged that the 5800 - the company's first attempt at a touchscreen smartphone to rival Apple Inc.'s iPhone - was having problems connecting to the faster third-generation, or 3G, network in New York and Chicago. Phones in those markets were pulled from the shelves.

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New figures released Sunday by NetApplications show that Apple Inc. dominated global Web browsing from mobile phones in February with the iPhone, with 66.4% of all Web surfing from mobile devices occurring on the Apple device. Microsoft Corp. accounts for about 6.9% from handsets running its Windows Mobile operating system, according to NetApplications.

That's nearly a perfect reversal of the balance of power in the Web browser market overall, which mainly consists of Internet surfing on personal computers. Microsoft's Internet Explorer in total accounts for 67.4% of Web browsing, while Apple's Safari accounted for a little over 8%.

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In a potential setback to its U.S. expansion efforts, Nokia Corp. was forced to pull its first high-profile touch-screen smart phone from its flagship Manhattan store, citing the device's problems connecting to the local third-generation, or 3G, network.

Nokia said that its 5800 XpressMusic device - a media-centric smart phone and the company's first crack at a touch-screen device since Apple's iPhone hit the market - was having connection problems in New York and Chicago. The device works in Dallas and Miami.

"The investigation is ongoing on the device itself and the network used in these cases," a Nokia spokeswoman said, adding that it was an isolated issue only found in North America. She declined to comment on why the phone would work in some markets and not others.

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T-Mobile USA, the No. 4 U.S. mobile phone service, said on Wednesday it is offering a $50 per month service plan to long-time customers in San Francisco, in the latest sign that U.S. operators may be facing a price war.

Under the promotion the company is also offering customers a $135 credit if they switch from a rival service to T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Teleko.

The test promotion comes after Sprint Nextel (S.N) unit Boost Mobile launched an all-in mobile plan for $50 a month in January. T-Mobile USA is seen by analysts as the carrier most vulnerable to losing customers to Boost.

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Nokia announced today that the highly anticipated Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is now available in the United States. The latest in Nokia's XpressMusic range, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic delivers an affordable music device with a touch screen interface to the mass market.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic offers all the music essentials including a graphic equalizer, 8GB memory for up to 6000 tracks and support for all main digital music formats, and a 3.5mm jack. Built-in surround sound stereo speakers offer a powerful sound.

"When it comes to music phones, people all over the world want a device that is a great music experience and still works really well as a mobile phone, without sacrificing features," said Ian Laing, Vice President, North America Sales, Nokia. "The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic delivers on this and has clearly proven to be a device that consumers are clamoring for - selling more than one million worldwide since its introduction a few months ago."
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