Samsung

Samsung is first in line when it comes to federal regulations on approved 4G LTE handsets, with the FCC giving the OK to an upcoming device known as the Samsung R900.

Pantech, Korea’s number three handset maker has constantly struggled to keep its head above water, fighting off its bigger, stronger competitors LG, Samsung and Apple.

RCR Unplugged recently reported that German chipmaker, Infineon Technologies, was under Intel’s acquisition microscope, but it seems another suitor – Samsung Electronics – has joined the fray.

A little birdie tweets that AT&T may be betting big on Microsoft’s soon-to-launch Windows Phone 7 (WP7) putting itself down for an order of eight million units.

It seems Samsung is thriving on the free colonial spirit with yet another phone giveaway to tempt punters away from the iPhone. Bell Canada announced this morning that it too would be doling out free phones – in this case the Android based Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant – to customers in advance of the August 6th Canadian launch date.

Samsung UK is giving out free Galaxy S smartphones to people who have publicly expressed their frustration with the new iPhone 4 on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Integrated Circuits (ICs) are an integral part of the mobile handset semiconductor market especially with the increasing demand for application processors within the wireless marketplace. In fact, the segment has one of the largest growth and development potentials in the industry due to an almost insatiable appetite for ever-growing levels of multi-functionality in next-generation handsets.

It’s been a long time in coming, but finally Microsoft has seen fit to bestow a “technical preview” of its Windows Phone 7 operating system to the unwashed developer masses.

The holidays came early to my desk this week as by some stroke of genius and luck not one, but two brand new mobile devices landed in my lap. I should probably say in reality that it’s more like 1.5 devices as they are both a version of Samsung’s Galaxy S model, one from AT&T Mobility and one from T-Mobile USA.

Speaking at MobileBeat in San Francisco this week, Samsung’s Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Omar Khan implied that smartphonese were passé, noting this year was the year of the superphone.

With worldwide market-share for smartphones constantly growing, it may seem to some that dependable old feature phones are being neglected, but a change in terminology could soon see feature phones getting smarter – on paper anyway.

Microsoft recently announced it would be killing off its Kin devices, and Emblaze declared a while back that its ELSE Intuition smartphone would never see the light of day, but what other innovative devices have been killed off before being given much of a chance?

Android phones may be taking the world by storm, but a shortage in AMOLED displays could prove a stumbling block and hinder Google’s efforts to run away with the smartphone cup.