European consumers have been faster to adopt ‘smart’ mobile phones than their American counterparts, according to Telephia.

In Q3 2006, smartphone penetration in Western Europe was 8.8 percent among recent device buyers; more than double that of the U.S. which was 3.8 percent. A smartphone is a class of handsets with a mobile operating system such as Symbian, Microsoft OS, RIM or Palm.

Motorola has just launched a special edition of their KRZR phone in a hot firey metallic red. And thus, it is appropriately dubbed the KRZR Fire. The redness doesn’t stop on the surface though, as the inside keypad backlighting also glows red.

However, expectedly so, the KRZR Fire has all the same features as its previous blue and black brothers, including a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0, and a microSD slot for music and video storage. Currently, the KRZR Fire is only available in Korea.

Neo is all set to launch a new generation of mobile phones that are fashionable to own and technologically advanced to use.

Currently in talks with global distributors and networks, Neo phones are slated for a March 2007 launch in the Middle East and will be available in Europe by April.

The planned merger to create the new company Nokia Siemens Networks is expected to close in the first quarter 2007. In light of the current investigations of Siemens, the scope of which includes the carrier-related business to be transferred to the new company, Nokia and Siemens intend to adjust their agreements in order to have Siemens conduct an appropriate compliance review prior to closing of the transaction. This adjustment is an addition to the previously agreed closing conditions. Nokia will participate actively in the review.

Pantech has announced the launch of the IM-U160 handset, a new terrestrial digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) handset that can be used as a portable TV with its wide LCD screen.

The new IM-U160 includes a 2.6-inch wide QVGA LCD screen, ensuring the most visually enhanced TV viewing experience for mobile phone users. It also features an aspect ratio - the ratio of the width of the LCD display screen to the height - of 15:9, considerably in advance of the 4:3 screen ratios usually offered by other mobile phones.

According to the latest figures from The Mobile World, the mobile telecoms analysis company, there are now over 2.6 billion mobile users in the world.

John Tysoe, Co-founder and Principal Analyst at The Mobile World commented: "The adoption of mobile telecommunications worldwide continues to show an upward trend, with particularly strong growth in India, China and the Middle East & Africa. 

Lets start from the fact that the Tiny Phone is a concept model.  

But there are no obstacles for it to become a real phone.  Display for example can be in a razor form that pulls out. It would feature four simple keys, each of which lets you enter three numbers.Rock the key to the left and you've entered one number, push it downward, there's another and rock that key to the right, and you've entered another,it has a spring-loaded see through display for caller ID info,and the interesting thing its only 3.14-inches in size so i have to admit i really like this.