Device Arena

Nokia today unveiled two new 3G slider phones, the Nokia 6700 slide and Nokia 7230, made for the design-conscious consumer and optimized for socializing and sharing with those closest to you.

Available in various fresh colors, with great imaging features and quick access to popular social networking communities, the Nokia 6700 slide and Nokia 7230 make a real style statement.

Both devices are expected to become available in the first quarter of 2010, and the retail prices before taxes and subsidies are anticipated to be EUR 160 for the Nokia 6700 slide, and EUR 100 for the Nokia 7230.

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Sprint Nextel Corporation and Virgin Mobile USA, Inc., today announced that they have completed their previously announced merger transaction. The acquisition of Virgin Mobile USA strengthens Sprint’s position in the growing prepaid segment by bringing together the iconic Virgin Mobile brand with Sprint’s successful Boost Mobile business.

Earlier today, Virgin Mobile USA stockholders approved the transaction with Sprint. With this approval, all closing conditions for the transaction were met.

“With continued growth in the U.S. prepaid segment, Sprint is further positioning itself as a leader,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. “With Boost’s continued success and the iconic Virgin Mobile brand under one umbrella, Sprint will offer customers value and flexibility with great devices running on a dependable network with great coverage.”

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Ericsson has withdrawn its complaint to the European Commission regarding Qualcomm’s WCDMA (3G) licensing activities. The company will, however, continue its ongoing dialogue with competition authorities around the world in relation to Qualcomm’s licensing practices. Ericsson’s goal remains the same: To ensure a robust, enforceable and fair IPR regime for standards, particularly those relating to 3G and 4G wireless technologies.

In October 2005, Ericsson, Nokia, Broadcom, Panasonic, NEC and Texas Instruments filed coordinated complaints alleging that Qualcomm was both violating antitrust laws and breaching its own commitments to standard-setting bodies to license its declared essential patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms. In support of these complaints, the companies have filed substantial economic evidence that Qualcomm’s conduct has caused mobile phone users to pay billions of Euros in unnecessary costs.

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Alcatel-Lucent today reinforced its commitment to customer satisfaction with the announcement that it has expanded the company’s certification for the International Quality Standards of ISO 9001 and TL9000 with a global, combined certificate of registration. Covering more than 200 company locations and more than 47,000 employees, this certification is one of the telecommunication industry’s largest multi-site quality standards registrations.

“We have made it a priority to become our customer’s most valuable partner by delivering them secure and reliable products, software, services, and solutions,” said Janet Davidson, President, Alcatel-Lucent Quality Assurance and Customer Care. “Our joint ISO 9001 and TL9000 registration reflects this priority and reinforces our commitment to long term customer satisfaction.”

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AT&T and HP today announced the upcoming availability of the new HP iPAQ Glisten, a feature-rich 3G world phone that meets the increasing demands of modern mobile professionals. AT&T’s first smartphone with an AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) screen, the HP iPAQ Glisten is loaded with features tailored with the business power user in mind.

Featuring the Microsoft Windows® Mobile 6.5 operating system, the iPAQ Glisten offers a touch-friendly user interface and improved browser with Flash support. Connections to your favorite people, content and applications are a fingertip away on the redesigned Start Menu, and Internet Explorer Mobile* supports the rich experiences that many Web pages offer for desktop computers.

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