Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, today announced the launch of the Samsung GALAXY S Advance. Designed for those who define themselves by the phone they carry, the GALAXY S Advance strikes a balance of style, power and performance. It will be available in Russia starting from February, and then be gradually rolled out in CIS, Europe, Africa, Middle East, Southeast and Southwest Asia, Latin America and China.
"The GALAXY S Advance adds to the successful track record of the GALAXY smartphone range with a phone that combines power and style with all the versatility of Samsung's Hub services," said JK Shin, President of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics. Read more inside..

"Samsung Galaxy S III specs has been leaked. According to the rumor the device will be packed with a 1.5 GHz quad-core processor and 12 megapixel camera. Aside from the specs we also received information regarding its availability. The Galaxy S III to be launch in April 2012. Another thing is there are more to its specs. The device will get a quad-core processor, 12 megapixel camera, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, HD screen and super thin. However, its still a rumor therefore we ought to wait until MWC 2012 to confirmed everything." via slashphone.com

"Mobile World Congress is coming very soon. We have a bunch rumored devices includes both the HTC Edge/Endeavor and the HTC Ville that possibly appear in MWC 2012. Now, we got another device which is the HTC Primo. The device will packed with Android 4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich OS. The Primo features a 3.7-inch Super AMOLED display and a 5-megapixel camera with 720p video capture on its backside. It also has a 1GHz dual-core processor alongside 512MB RAM. As for pricing, it would cost around £250 aka $388. Availability to be announced." via slashphone.com

"  Sony Ericsson is showing visitors to the 2012 International CES Show a fully connected entertainment world with the first Xperia™ smartphones from Sony®*, including Xperia S, the first smartphone from the Xperia NXT series – next generation smartphones from Sony, and new Xperia smartphones made specifically for the US and Japanese markets, all with access to premium entertainment services and easy connectivity to other screens within the world of Sony." Read more inside..

"  Sony Ericsson is showing visitors to the 2012 International CES Show a fully connected entertainment world with the first Xperia™ smartphones from Sony®*, including Xperia S, the first smartphone from the Xperia NXT series – next generation smartphones from Sony, and new Xperia smartphones made specifically for the US and Japanese markets, all with access to premium entertainment services and easy connectivity to other screens within the world of Sony." Read more inside..

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, unveiled the world's slimmest smartphone today at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The Huawei Ascend P1 S is 6.68mm thin and features a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED 960 x 540 touchscreen with Corning® Gorilla® Glass. The Ascend P1 S is also the fastest and most compact smartphone in its class with a dual-core 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4460 Cortext-A9 processor and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system.
"We're excited to unveil the world's slimmest smartphone here at CES 2012," said Richard Yu, Chairman of Huawei Device. "The Ascend P1 S demonstrates our ongoing commitment to innovating high quality devices that utilize the latest hardware and software technologies." Read more inside..

Thanks to a reminder from WebProNews, it's instructive to look again at the smartphone world via StatCounter, a pro service embedded on many web sites which tracks the browser and OS used to access them. And, reflecting the still enormous installed base of Symbian-powered smartphones across the world, Symbian still (for web access, at least) still dominates the world, at 31%.
The counter-intuitive nature of the chart, i.e. that Symbian still dominates despite Android and iOS activations reportedly running very high through 2011, is explained by the difference between sales marketshare and installed base 'share'. Earlier this year, actual sales of Android-powered smartphones per quarter overtook Symbian. But the 300 million or so active Symbian users across the world - regardless of whether they're using a three year old Nokia 5800 or even an older N95 - is a statistic that can't be ignored for actual use. You may remember that I've talked before about not underestimating the inertia behind Symbian's installed base - the numbers boggle the mind.
Added to the huge installed base of Symbian smartphones is the factor of the rise and rise of affordable data, even on pay as you go SIM cards, across the world. In other words, just about everyone is now getting online. In StatCounter's eyes, web access is web access." via allaboutsymbian.com

"Google Nexus S users, check the update option on your phone, you might just have a nice surprise. Google has announced that over the coming month you will be getting Ice Cream Sandwich.

"We're rolling out Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, to GSM/UMTS Nexus S devices over the coming month, starting today. Enjoy the tasty update!" Google announced via it's Android page on Google+.

The news comes after two months of internal testing on Nexus S smartphones at Google and will mean that you won't have to stump up the cash for the new Galaxy Nexus to get the new Google operating system announced in October.

Google's Ice Cream Sandwich offers a number of new features to Android as well as promising to merge the phone and tablet arms of the OS together.

Read our comprehensive review of Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich to find out whether you should be excited about getting the update, or fearful." via pocket-lint.com

"As Android and Apple continue to dominate the U.S. smartphone market, RIM and other smartphone manufacturers have made moves to reclaim lost market share.
PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, December 13, 2011 - According to The NPD Group, a leading market research company, Android's operating system (OS) share of smartphone sales grew to command more than half of the U.S. smartphone market (53 percent) from January through October 2011, as Apple's iOS share grew to reach 29 percent of the market, and RIM's OS share declined to 11 percent. RIM and other companies that were formerly on top of NPD's smartphone rankings, however, have made critical business decisions this past year in a quest to shore up their U.S. smartphone businesses." Read more inside..

" PRADA and LG, which have in the past, jointly developed mobile phones with maximum functionality and elegance reveal, today launched the PRADA phone by LG 3.0, the latest must-have smartphone. The highly anticipated phone is the third resulting from this collaboration, and embodies the design standards of both companies.
The PRADA phone by LG 3.0 combines the unmistakable style of Prada with LG's innovative technology, including one of the biggest and brightest screens on the market at 4.3 inches and 800 cd / m²." Read more inside..