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.

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.

LG Electronics, a major manufacturer of mobile phones and flat screen televisions, swung to its first net loss in seven quarters, hit by falling prices for TVs and a hefty price-fixing fine slapped on its affiliate LG Display.

Apple executives hinted Wednesday that the company might legally contest the multitouch technology found within the Palm Pre.

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest mobile phone maker, said on Thursday it would pay US$400 million in royalties for patents held by wireless technology firm InterDigital.

Samsung Electronics on Friday streamlined its businesses into two major groups, joining its chip and LCD units and combining its telecom and media divisions.

The Palm Pre may be sold exclusively through Best Buy Mobile (in addition to at Sprint stores) for the first two months of its release.

Motorola is cutting 4,000 more jobs as consumers stave off purchases amid the economic recession. Revenues in the fourth period fell to between US$7-7.2 billion. Sales of US$7 billion would represent a 27%drop from a year earlier.

The Cambridge-based company was already eight years old when on Jan. 6 1999 EE Times reported ARM's own prediction that the company would have 70 percent of the market for processors in the mobile phone handset business. This was a statistic that came to define ARM's early success.

Shares in Palm surged over 36% on Friday after its new touch-screen phone and mobile operating system impressed analysts and short sellers rushed to cover their positions, giving investors hope it may win customers from rivals such as Apple.

Palm executives say the touch-screen device and the new operating system inside it, WebOS, break new ground in the fiercely competitive smartphone market. The phone's selling points include an emphasis on fast Web browsing and efficient multitasking.

"We have ramped down the N810 WiMax Edition tablet. It has reached the end of its lifecycle," said a Nokia spokesman. Nokia unveiled the model only nine months ago, while usually even the most trendy models have a shelf life of well over a year.

Taiwan's exports slumped by a record 41.9% in December on weaker demand from the US and China for laptops, mobile phones and computer chips.

SanDisk unveiled a portable digital music system based on memory cards preloaded with songs, signaling a shift in its strategy to compete against the iPod. The Sansa slotRadio player and companion line of slotRadio music cards were announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

It seems that Samsung will be the first tier one handset maker to release an Android phone, pipping Motorola, Huawei and Sony Ericsson to the post with a 2Q launch in the US planned.

"We will continue to combine market share and margins in the right way in order to maximize the bottom line," Nokia CEO Kallasvuo was quoted as saying in an interview. This in stark contrast to some of its smaller rivals, like LG Electronics, who have said they will do anything to reach their sales targets.

Samsung Electronics has been ordered to pay 50 million yuan (US$7.3 million) to a Chinese company for infringing its dual-mode cellphone patent, Xinhua news agency reported. Samsung was sued by Holley Communications in April last year for violating a patented technology allowing cellphones to operate on both CDMA and GSM networks, Xinhua said.

The US International Trade Commission agreed to investigate Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics based on a complaint filed by Eastman Kodak. Kodak submitted its complaint in November, charging LG and Samsung with violating patents in their camera phones and other mobile products. The relevant patents cover technology related to image capture, compression and data storage, and a method for previewing certain images.

Amazon.com has launched on the Apple App Store an iPhone application that makes it possible to take a picture of a product and then send it to the online retailer, which will try to match it with products in its inventory.