Samsung launched five new high profile handsets in a bid to snatch the number one spot back from Nokia this week.

The manufacturer unveiled its main flagship device for 2009, ‘Jet’, as well as four new devices in the Omnia range, at large scale launches in London, Dubai and Singapore.

The touch-screen Jet (pictured), which has an iPhone-like ‘zoom’ capability, took almost all of the limelight at the London event (15 June). The phone will go head to head with the iPhone 3G S and the Nokia N97, as all three enter the market within the next month.

Nokia is currently number one on UK market share, but the margin is narrow and Samsung hopes its latest clutch of big releases can propel it back to the top.

Samsung has arguably released more high profile handsets this year than ever. In the past few months alone, the manufacturer has launched the Tocco Ultra Edition, i8910 (Omnia) HD and the Pixon 12, as well as the five devices unveiled last night.

Some believe the aggressive strategy will hit Samsung’s profits, but the manufacturer is showing no signs of letting up.

Samsung Mobile UK’s general manager, Derek Williamson, told Mobile: ‘There will be more big launches this year, it won’t stop here. One will be our Google Android device, which will be along similar lines to the Jet’s specs, looks and feel.

‘We’ve been back and forth with Nokia, but we prefer to focus on bringing out great products, and our market share will take care of itself.’

The Jet is expected to hit shelves next week and has been offered to all networks and retailers. The device offers an 800MHz processor, a
3.1-inch AMOLED touch-screen and a five-megapixel camera.

A high five?
The five launches Samsung hopes will propel it to the top spot:
Samsung Jet
A wannabe ‘iPhone killer’ offering a 3.1-inch AMOLED screen, 800MHz processor and five-megapixel camera. Samsung’s big hope for the second half of 2009.

Omnia II (i8000)
A Windows Mobile 6.1 follow-up to the original Omnia. It looks almost identical to the Jet and offers the world’s largest AMOLED display screen at 3.7 inches.

Omnia Pro (B7610)
A hybrid device offering both a QWERTY keyboard and full touch-screen. Billing it as a business phone that’s just as usable on your day off.

Omnia pro (B7320)
This compact QWERTY device bears a strong resemblance to Nokia’s E71. Offers corporate push-email as well as social networking applications.

Omnia lite (B7300)
The black sheep of the family, looking nothing like the rest. It has similar specs to the Pro B7320, but doesn’t have a QWERTY keyboard.

Vodafone’s magnanimous gesture in waiving roaming charges over the summer amounted to a nifty bit of misdirection – few noticed that it also slipped out some radical changes to the price of data for the traveller who can’t be without their email.

The changes to the cost of roamed data were posted onto the company website without press release or notification. However, one keen-eyed Reg reader noticed a footnote on their bill and decided to check out the changes, only to discover the details are obscure and the company support was unable to clarify how much it will cost to use data abroad from July 1.

Zone one covers Europe and surrounding area, and will cost a fiver per 25MB for a phone, doubling to a tenner for the same amount of data downloaded to a laptop using a dongle. Zone two includes most of the rest of the world including America, and will cost three times that: £15 for a phone, £30 for a laptop. Zone three includes some of the more obscure destinations and remains at a fiver per megabyte.

The confusion arises when it comes to users who don’t touch those figures – the BlackBerry user who downloads an email on the Eurostar, or the lost walker who checks Google Mobile Maps while in Germany – with Vodafone’s support being singularly unhelpful when it comes to how much such minimal usage will cost.

Even we had trouble getting figures out of the company, whose people just wanted to talk about how great Voda is at cutting the cost of voice roaming; but we eventually established that in zone one users will pay 50p for each 100KB (or part thereof) of data while roaming, up to a total of 1MB at which point the fiver-for-25MB rate automatically kicks in. Those figures double for zone two and don’t apply to zone three.

Overall the deal seems good, and should make using data abroad less of a crapshoot for those who didn’t check tariffs before leaving, as well as putting the cost of data well below the €1-per-MB wholesale rate mandated by the EU. All of which makes Vodafone’s reticence to discuss it, even with its own support staff, all the more mysterious.

By The Register

Carphone Warehouse is to buy the UK assets of Italian internet service provider Tiscali for £236m.

The deal, which is expected to be completed by the end of June, will create the UK’s largest home broadband provider with 4.25m subscribers.

Tiscali had previously been in talks with BSkyB, but negotiations broke down earlier this year.

Carphone Warehouse currently provides broadband services under its TalkTalk brand and via AOL Broadband.

Carphone chief executive Charles Dunstone said that the company would eventually just have a single brand.

But he added that Tiscali e-mail addresses would survive.

“We know the business well and the fit with TalkTalk is perfect,” Mr Dunstone said.

Completion of the deal will give TalkTalk more than 25% of the residential broadband market.

Carphone expects it to boost its earnings by 10% in the next year.

Shares in Carphone Warehouse were up 3.8% by midmorning.

Tiscali shares, which were earlier suspended in Italy pending the statement, were up 8%.

‘Competitive UK market’

Tiscali has struggled with its debt, which stands at about 600m euros ($805m;£535m).

It is the fifth largest internet service provider in the UK, with 1.45m broadband customers.

“The transaction should be considered in light of the strong consolidating trend in the highly competitive UK market, evaluating Tiscali UK activities as a whole, thus preserving the value of its industrial assets and know-how within the Carphone Warehouse Group,” said Mario Rosso, chief executive of Tiscali.

Carphone announced plans last month to separate its mobile phone business from its TalkTalk fixed line and broadband operations.

It operates 2,400 mobile phone shops across Europe in a joint venture with the US retailer Best Buy.

Article from: my3G.co.uk

With T-Mobile’s financial results coming this week and expected to show big losses, will a merger with 3 be the next move for owners Deutsche Telekom?