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Sony Ericsson have announced a new mobile phone with an exotic looking super-flip form factor. Instead of opening vertically, like a traditional clamshell, the new Sony Ericsson W44S Bravia phone flips open on it side, revealing a huge screen that’s perfect for viewing movies and mobile TV on.

Mobile TV? Yup, this Sony Ericsson’s got the lot.

With half of the world's population owning mobile phones, there's still plenty of room to introduce new mobile phones. The new study by MultiMedia Intelligence reports that the worldwide shipments of multimedia feature rich mobile phones will exceed 300 million units in 2008, outnumbering shipments of TV sets.



Multimedia phone is defined as a handset equipped with an image sensor, MP3 audio support, and video playback. It is estimated that 9 out of 10 handsets are multimedia phones by 2011. According to Frank Dickson, Chief Research Officer for MultiMedia Intelligence:

"Voice services are suffering under increasing price pressure, forcing operators to leverage data services to sustain revenue growth and offset declining voice ARPU. Handset manufacturers are racing to meet the consumer and operator demands for increasingly feature-rich multimedia handsets, while controlling handset cost and power consumption. The result is the mobile phone has become the world's most ubiquitous entertainment platform."

Given the increasing number of multimedia phones, it is now a major factor to retain and gain new customers.

Bang & Olufsen has launched a new mobile phone, supplied by Samsung - the Serenata. The phone features a built-in stereo loudspeaker system, and users have the choice to listen through the integrated loudspeaker system or through the dedicated stereo EarSet 3 earphones or to connect it to their hi-fi as an auxiliary source. The focus has been on providing a music performance with emphasis on playback of "uncompressed" music. Besides handling lossless formats, Serenata also handles playback in compressed formats including MP3, WMA, and AAC

Beam me up Scotty! In an announcement expected to go hand in hand with hover cars and robot servants, Chinese electronics company C-Sky Industrial limited has announced that it will be producing a range of mobile phone wrist watches.

Though not a new idea (see the Samsung GPRS watch phone), these new models (from the pictures at least) stand out from previous failed attempts at converging a watch and a mobile phone due to the sleek design and excellent spec list. Apparently, if these products do ever see the light of day, we can expect Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel camera and mp3 playback.

As with many Chinese companies, innovation is the name of the game and what once would have seemed laughable, today seems entirely feasible.

Though many of you will be looking at the watch phone with a large degree of scepticism, what this undoubtedly does go to prove is how far mobile phone technology has come in the pursuit of integrating multiple devices.

Past products which spring to mind in this vein include the Sony Ericsson MBW-100 Bluetooth watch, an incredibly attractive watch which provided owners with excellent features such as caller id and text message alerts on the watch face itself as well as the ability to pair it with an accompanying Bluetooth headset and answer and end calls directly on the watch.

Bluetooth has always been an area of innovation with hundreds of unique applications, from the useful to the downright daft. Now an increase in the amount of fashion orientated products, including Bluetooth wristbands and even a Bluetooth headset styled as dog tags are becoming ever more popular.

Where past ventures have seen mobile phones partnered with fashion houses such as the giants of Prada and Armani, perhaps the manufacturers are now directing the fashion themselves with the products likening themselves more to jewellery. Should we expect a phone co-launched with a major watch brand?

Whether mobile phone earrings, necklaces or bracelets will materialize in the future remains to be seen, but the future design of mobile phones can be viewed with excitement (and a large pinch of salt!). While for the time being watch phones are still niche and viewed with a hint of negativity it is wise to remember how we all scoffed at camera phones!

So hang on to your jewellery and your fashion phones for the meantime, just don’t be surprised if your next handset ends up replacing that Rolex!

Samsung India has launched five new mobile phones in the Indian market. Samsung’s brand Ambassador Aamir Khan was also present at the launch event. The five models launched yesterday included SGH-i450, SGH-G800, i550, D880 and J210.

The new mobile phones from Samsung offer a rich multimedia experience along with the latest features and sleek design. Samsung SGH G800 offers high quality imaging with a 5 mega pixels camera offering up to 3x optical zoom. The model is priced at Rs 21,799.

Full Touch UI

• TouchWiz v1.0 offers more versatile, intuitive and easy-to-use navigation
• Large 3.0” LCD with 262K Color WQVGA showcases brilliance and optimized view
• 16:9 LCD supports hyper QWERTY keypad for upgraded ease of input
• Haptic offers tangible feedback when using the touch screen
• Auto rotating display easily switches back and forth to optimize viewing of large content

Design

• Compact size measures a palm-friendly 104x53x11.9mm
• Sleek squared shape with chic black color completes touch style

Mobile Widgets

• Mobile widgets customize screen with embedded widgets such as clock, scheduler, and other useful apps

• Online widgets connect you to useful info including stock