Week in Review: Mobiles, tablets and the industry gossip

published 18 February 2011

More mobiles

Unsurprisingly, a huge range of mobile phones were launched at this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) but along with the consumer devices, the business world got a look in too.

HP showed off its first handset since it acquired Palm last year, the Pre3, running webOS and linking nicely with the firm's new tablet device. Check out our video here.

Sony Ericsson offered a corporate device - the Xperia Pro - alongside its usual playtime phones. Check out our video here.

And Motorola brought its popular Pro device over from the US to launch in Europe. Will it get pulses racing in the UK business world? Check out our video here.

Tablet time

But the mobile doesn't just cover smartphones anymore and a raft of these new portable devices were revealed during the show.

Although announced before, we were pleased to get our hands on RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook for the first time. With its extra security features and built-in office software, it looks like a real contender for the corporate environment. Check out our review here.

HTC's first foray into the world of tablets also got a positive response with its inclusion of TimeMark and HTC Scribe technology - ideal for business meetings. Check out our review here.

And Acer got in on the game with the launch of two new tablets, one measuring seven inches and another measuring 10.1in. Check out our videos of the Iconia A100 and A500 here.

Best of the rest

Talk wasn't just limited to devices though. Industry leaders also spoke about technology trends.

Near Field Communications (NFC) was a hot topic and the head of products and services at mobile operator 3, Charlotte Blanchard, revealed a rare group initiative where her company was working alongside all its rivals to make mobile tap and go payments a reality.

Twitter executives played down rumours of a possible buy out by one of the big internet companies in Silicon Valley, whilst Google's Eric Schmidt admitted his love for the microblogging site.

And the chief financial officer (CFO) of Everything Everywhere, Richard Moat, claimed the merger of Orange and T-Mobile would give a great boost to the British economy.

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.