The GSMA and 17 leading mobile operators and manufacturers have announced that they are committed to implementing a cross-industry standard for a universal charger for new mobile phones. The aim of the initiative, led by the GSMA, is to ensure that the mobile industry adopts a common format for mobile phone charger connections and energy-efficient chargers resulting in an estimated 50% reduction in standby energy consumption, and the potential elimination of up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers.

Texas Instruments has sent out a little reminder that it won't be a cakewalk into the smartphone market for newcomers Intel and Nvidia. TI continues to upgrade its arsenal of ARM-design-based processors, which have been shipping for years to cell phone customers.

Global chipmakers, battling slower technology demand, are betting size matters as they pin their hopes for future growth on small and easy to carry mobile devices such as netbooks and smartphones.

The world's second-largest cell phone maker, Samsung Electronics, will start to sell several phones using open-source Linux software platforms this year, a senior executive told Reuters in an interview.

Mobile telephones are seen as "a basic necessity" around the world and should enjoy persistent strong demand throughout an economic downturn, a United Nations (UN) agency said in a report published on Monday.

For quite a while, conventional wisdom had it that Samsung would introduce a phone running Google's Android OS at the Mobile World Congress trade show this week. Samsung's Kim Titus said that the phone isn't delayed - they never planned to show an Android phone at MWC. It's not their fault if we were all jumping to conclusions, basically.

Research In Motion (RIM) said its quarterly earnings and gross margin would come in at the low end of expectations even as subscriber growth topped forecasts, a warning that sent shares of the BlackBerry maker down 12% Wednesday.