The world’s fifth largest mobile phone manufacturer had a record first-quarter this year. LG Electronics sold 24.4 million mobile phones in the quarter ending in March of 2008. The sales helped the company earn a profit of 422 billion won ($427 million). In last year’s first-quarter, LG Electronics lost 123 billion won.

LG sales were led by the high-end Viewty, Voyager and Venus models. Profits were slightly below the 429 billion won ($435 million) that analysts had predicted. Much of the sales increase came from markets in Asia and the Middle East that saw an increase of 36% over last year’s fourth-quarter.

“We expect handset sales to exceed 100 million in 2008,” Jung Do-hyun, chief financial officer, told an analysts’ conference, according to LG spokeswoman Judy Pae.

LG makes more than mobile phones. The company also manufactures plasma televisions, computers, refrigerators and other appliances.

Via Mobilecrunch

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Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is one step closer to industry-wide stability. 3GPP LTE technology (LTE is the name given to a project within the Third Generation Partnership Project) offers wireless broadband speeds with downloads around 100 Mbps and uploads of 50 Mbps. Seven telecommunication companies have reached an agreement on a framework for licensing intellectual-property rights that relate to LTE. This agreement will make the transition to LTE easier because the fear of lawsuits will be reduced.

Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, NEC, NextWave Wireless, Nokia Siemens Networks and Sony Ericsson have agreed to an industry standard being called FRAND, which stands for Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory licensing terms. Notebook personal that use LTE will pay a combined maximum royalty in the single digits. Handsets will pay a single-digit royalty that’s based on a percentage of the sales price of the device.

Ericsson Senior Vice President and CTO Hakan Eriksson stated this agreement will “reassure operators of the early widespread adoption of LET technology throughout the consumer electronics industry.”

Industry giant Qualcomm has yet to sign onto the FRAND framework. Other companies like Verizon Wireless, China Mobile, Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo are working on their own versions of LTE.

The future may not be here yet but it could be by next year. Wireless high-speed access will go a long way to promoting services like high-resolution video streaming and innovative online games that can be accessed almost anywhere at any time.

Via Mobilecrunch

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The government of Raul Castro began selling mobile phones to the general public this day. Hundreds of Cubans have lined up at state-owned telephone offices to take advantage of this technical wonder.

The cheapest mobile phone costs the equivalent of more than nine months of state wages and yet thousands are expected to purchase a handset in the near future. Calls will be paid for with prepaid cards purchased with hard currency, and can receive and make international calls.

“It is a very good measure, but what we earn does not correspond with the price,” said 33-year-old Gustavo, who nevertheless waited with around 100 others at an office in Havana’s colonial district to purchase the service.

Via Mobilecrunch

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The government of Raul Castro began selling mobile phones to the general public this day. Hundreds of Cubans have lined up at state-owned telephone offices to take advantage of this technical wonder.

The cheapest mobile phone costs the equivalent of more than nine months of say wages and yet thousands are expected to purchase a handset in the near future. Calls will be paid for with prepaid cards bought with hard currency, and can receive and make international calls.

“It is a very good measure, but what we earn does not correspond with the price,” stated 33-year-old Gustavo, who nevertheless waited with around 100 others at an office in Havana’s colonial district to purchase the service.

Via Mobilecrunch

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Ericsson announced this day that it has signed contracts with China Mobile and China Unicom. Ericsson is a wireless equipment maker. The two contracts will expand Ericsson’s Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) networks and bag the company a hefty profit from the $1.44 billion sale.

The sale to China Mobile is by far the larger of the two, coming in at $1.3 billion. This will make Ericsson one of the main suppliers of core and radio network equipment in China. The company will also provide technical support and services and include power-saving features that reduce energy consumption in mobile networks.

The $140 million agreement with China Unicom will supply China’s second largest mobile provider with multimedia solutions for wireless access provider. Simply translated, WAP services.

Deliveries of equipment have already started and both projects are expected to be completed this year.

Via Mobilecrunch

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Microsoft’s near-mythical Surface table just appeared at five AT&T Stores across the country (with seven more locations soon to get one), and we were happy to have a go with it this morning. As you’ll see in the video, this one is programmed for mobile phone sales pitches, and doesn’t have all of the fun apps we’ve heard about, but even here, Surface’s large, beautiful potential is obvious.

I panned and zoomed around coverage maps easily, best when I relaxed my touch, as pressing too hard made the table less responsive. Placing a specially-tagged phone on the Surface brought up information about it, including service plans, accessories, and the capability to see it in different colors. When two phones are placed on the table, a side-by-side comparison chart appears. The actions available on the AT&T Store table include flick, zoom in/out, flip, drag and the object-sensing ability.

My favorite part of the Surface is that it has lots of touch points; one person can zoom in on an object while another person flicks a different object. At one point, we’d 30 fingers on the table, and they were all registering. The capability to collaborate in a physical way (group painting or pic sharing come to mind) will definitely be a large draw. Inevitable comparisons to the iPhone—curiously unavailable to place on the table—are warranted: It’s basically the same feel, but 10x larger.

Don’t anticipate this to replace AT&T reps just yet, as purchasing still can’t be done directly on the Surface. Still, it’s definitely one cool tool that we look forward to seeing in other arenas. It’s at five AT&T locations starting today (two in NYC, one each in San Fransisco, San Antonio, and Atlanta), and it will be in 12 stores by next month. [Microsoft Surface]

Via [Gizmodo]

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