The first full quarter on Elop's watch will include the first sizable sales from the company's N8 smartphone. The 44% drop in profit forecast by analysts stands in contrast to Apple's 78% earnings growth in the period.

In the roughly two weeks since Motorola's biggest customer Verizon Wireless unveiled plans to start selling an iPhone in February, Motorola has already noticed a decline in smartphone sales, Chief Executive Sanjay Jha said on Wednesday.

The mail order smartphone business didn't work out so well for Google with its Nexus One. But that doesn't mean the idea of carrier independence can't succeed with an established direct sales leader.

"Things have changed quite a bit," says Robert Passaro, a senior product manager for BMW. "We're tapping into where people are living their digital lives now, and that's on the smartphone. It makes sense to leverage that and integrate it into the car."

The Mobile Internet and Digital Home Business Group will be run by Liu Jun, formerly president of Lenovo's Product Group.

The struggling Finnish mobile-phone giant has abruptly canceled the U.S. launch of a smartphone that was slated to launch exclusively this year with AT&T, people familiar with the situation said. The unexpected cancellation leaves Nokia further behind in its effort to correct a major strategic weakness -- its poor showing in the lucrative U.S. market, where it lags behind Apple, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and phones powered by Google's Android software.

Ifa user's BlackBerry smartphone and his PlayBook (via Bluetooth) are connected to a company's BlackBerry Enterprise Server, then the company's IT shop will be able to set controls on the way tethering works, RIM officials explained.

Intel is yet to be much of a player in the booming tablet and smartphone spaces, a concern for industry observers in the long term. However, for now the burgeoning markets are helping drive demand in some of Intel's traditional businesses.

Verizon Wireless unveiled its plans for the iPhone 4, saying the Apple smartphone will be available beginning Feb. 10, with certain Verizon Wireless customers being able to pre-order Feb. 3. A 16 gigabyte Verizon iPhone will sell for $199.99, while a 32 gigabyte will go for $299.99, each with a two-year customer agreement.

Motorola showcased three new smartphones. Each of the devices is a potential game changer, not necessarily because they're the latest and greatest in smartphones but more because the company seems to have listened to consumers about what the features, the tools and the specs they're looking for.

New standards were released in Europe this week for a universal USB phone charger that will let Europeans use one charger for different phones starting early next year. The standards are based on MicroUSB and were embraced on Wednesday by the European Commission, which says they will be helpful to both consumers and the environment.

HTC has filed for a trademark for a product called HTC Scribe, describing it as a "handheld wireless device, namely a tablet computer." The filing was recorded with the US Patent and Trademark Office on Dec. 26.

RIM allegedly doubted Apple's ability to produce the original iPhone when the first-gen handset was initially announced, then thrown into panic after teardowns of the smartphone revealed the company had managed to produce a full-touch device with market-ready battery life.

A trio of posts this weekend point to a 2011 smartphone explosion, grudging admiration of Android, and a continuation of the trend of 2011: Android continuing extend its lead over the iPhone in terms of market share.

The upgrade reflects improving 2011 prospects for NAND flash memory demand, driven by tablets, smartphones and solid-state drives. The improving demand picture offsets concerns about higher supply due to new NAND fabs from Samsung, Toshiba and Micron expanding production in 2011.

Imagination will pay US$27 million cash for Caustic Graphics. The deal comes less than a month after the chip designer agreed a deal to buy US-based HelloSoft for up to US$47m to assist its push into video and voice-over Internet protocol products and expand its WiFi offering.

"We are working on LTE device for next year, 2011. We think the US mobile operator will be taking some leading and pushing the LTE 4G in the US market, but however, we are seeing the rest of world will be deploying LTE network elsewhere in 2011, could be second half of 2011," said Peter Chou.

Nokia has warned that another of its new range of smartphones will be delayed, highlighting the difficulties facing the Finnish group as it struggles to regain lost ground in the fast-growing smartphone market.

In the smartphone business, the conventional wisdom is that everyone is battling for third place behind Google and Apple.

The chips will be used in "premier" smartphone brands, Otellini said today at an investor conference in San Francisco. He declined to name any customers.

Nokia is attempting to shore up its defences against smartphone rivals with a cost-cutting programme that will see the number of UK service centres cut by a third.

RIM announced it is buying The Astonishing Tribea Swedish mobile software design house, which is known for making shiny, slick interfaces for a variety of phone makers, especially for Android-phones

It should come as no surprise that Apple and Android are the two "most desired" smartphone systems, according to a new Nielsen survey of mobile phone users. But the results vary a bit based on the people who were surveyed.

The smartphone industry has designated which smartphone OS best fits each usergroup to help vendors sell phones and consumers buy the one that's right for them.

NTT DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile carrier, is aggressively promoting rival smartphone offerings such as Samsung Electronics' Galaxy handset.

If you're waiting for the first LTE smartphone on Verizon Wireless to arrive, Verizon's CEO says it'll happen in February 2011

"We haven't set prices yet because the phone will only be released at the end of this year," said the head of China Unicom's technology department.

AMD said it has joined open source MeeGo project, led by rival Intel and Nokia.

Have you ever wondered which smartphone would last the longest when cooked like a hamburger?