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It looks like LG’s hard work is finally paying off as they are now the world's 3rd largest mobile phone manufacturer. Shipping 100 million handsets last year, LG managed to edge out the likes of Motorola and Sony Ericsson making them now part of the big three in the mobile phone industry. Not surprising is Nokia who is still no. 1 with 470 million units sold while Samsung is sitting pretty at no. 2 with 200 million phones. Motorola came close at no. 4 with 99.9 millions phones sold while Sony Ericsson was at fifth place with 96.6 million units shipped. It’s still a long way to go for LG if they seriously want to overthrow Nokia from the top spot, but if they continue to release phones like the LG Cookie and Renoir, I'm optimistic of their chances and 2009 will no doubt be another fruitful year for the company.

Over the weekend, Nokia announced that they have just shipped the 1 million Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phones making it one of their more successful phones to date. Even though it hasn’t been released all over the globe, impressive sales in particular regions like Hong Kong, Moscow and no doubt, the Philippines as well has helped the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic attain this feat at such a short amount of time. This, in turn, will no doubt raise even more comparison to Apple’s equally successful mobile phone, the iPhone. So, is the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone the real iPhone-killer? While on paper the 5800 XpressMusic phone does lord it over the iPhone in terms of specs and most importantly the price, it caters to a different segment of the market and to be honest, I personally find the ‘touch’ experience is nowhere near that of the iPhone. Remember, even though the 5800 XpressMusic runs on the S60 OS, it’s still a music phone first and foremost. The iPhone, on the other hand, tries to offer a more modern alternative to the conventional smartphone and for the most part, succeeds in doing so. As far as sales go, I have no doubt that the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone can match or even surpass the iPhone, but in terms of performance, they don’t even belong in the same playing field. If Nokia probably came out with an updated E9x phone that featured a touchscreen, maybe then we can seriously compare the iPhone with Nokia. So what about the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone then? It is what it is; a highly successful touchscreen music phone from Nokia.

iPhone users will now have an option as to what browser to use when surfing the web as Apple has approved 3rd party internet browsers to be featured on the App Store. Among the first batch of approved internet browsers, the Edge Browser (shown in the picture) stands out as it provides full screen browsing and, more importantly, is free. If anonymous surfing is your thing, the Incognito browser will come in handy, but it’ll set you back $1.99 to use it. The Webmate browser, meanwhile, provides tabbed browsing and costs less than the Incognito at just $0.99 to download. With this latest turn of events, we’re now a bit more optimistic of the chances that we will one day see Mobile FireFox and Opera Mini become available on the iPhone.

Sony Ericsson fans will be happy to know that a new Cybershot phone as well as a Walkman phone are confirmed to debut this year. The Sony Ericsson C510 is a 3.2-megapixel Cybershot phone that comes with a 2.2-inch TFT scratch-resistant display, Bluetooth, Google Maps, direct YouTube upload, slide-in lens cover, and 100MB internal memory. It likewise features Smile Shutter, Face Detection and Photo Fix. It’ll be available in the 1Q of this year in two color options: Radiation Silver and Future Black. Price is yet to be known, but it expected to be more on the affordable side. Meanwhile, the W508 is the new Walkman phone to watch out for. It's a clamshell that features a 2.2-inch internal scratch-resistant display, a 1.1-inch monochromatic OLED external scratch-resistant display, 3.2-megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, NetFront browser, 100MB internal memory and a 1GB Memory Stick Micro as part of the package. Of course, since this is a Walkman phone, you can expect TrackID, Mega Bass, Shake Control and SensMe to be present as well. It’ll be available in Q2 of this year with a yet to be known price. While these two may offer very little in terms of groundbreaking features, they certainly have the looks and styling to succeed in the market.

During the recently concluded CES in Las Vega, Palm finally unveiled their latest smartphone, the Palm Pre.

Taking a new approach in designing this smartphone, the Palm Pre integrates a slide-out QWERTY keypad to complement its 3.1-inch touchscreen display which is not usually common in Palm devices. It likewise features a 3-megapixel camera with flash, HSDPA connectivity, Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and EDR, proximity and light sensor, accelerometer, 8GB internal memory, and runs on their latest mobile operating system, the WebOS.

Palm’s new OS is a huge improvement in terms of visual appeal when compared to their earlier applications, but the jury is still out as to how successful as a platform it will be especially when compared to the iPhone and Android. The WebOS makes use of CSS, XHTML and JavaScript making it compatible with a wide variety of applications, and will likewise be able to connect directly to an app store that Palm will be launching soon dubbed as the App Catalog. Sadly though, only US residents will get a chance to own one during the early part of this year. The Palm Pre will become available sometime during the first half of 2009 exclusively on Sprint. A Palm Pre GSM version for other market is expected to be released once it makes its debut in the US. Hopefully, that will happen sooner than later because the last thing Palm needs is to follow in the footsteps of the XPERIA X1 and lose whatever interest and fan base it has gained during its announcement due to a delayed release.

Those who want to try Nokia Maps for free can now do so as the mobile phone giant is giving away a week’s worth of free navigation services. By default, most new Nokia phones that have Maps come with a free trial period, but if for whatever reason you were never able take it for a spin, here is Nokia’s New Year’s present to all you folks out there. Simple select your country, enter your mobile phone number and wait for an activation codeto be sent to you via SMS . Similarly, you will also be notified via SMS when your free trial is over. Do note, however, that this works with the latest Nokia Maps version and GPS-enabled phones only. If you know you have both, head on over here so that you can get yourself a free one week pass now to play around with Nokia Maps.

If you think that this is just a concept device, then be prepared to be amazed because you’re completely wrong. LG has decided to come out with the GD910, the first ever 3G-capable watch phone that likewise boasts of having a touchscreen display, front-facing camera for video calls, Bluetooth, and HSDPA connectivity that maxes out at 7.2Mbps. While I highly doubt you'll be able to take hi-resolution pictures using this, the GD910 does make for a pretty handy 3G modem that you can pair with your laptop through Bluetooth and will definitely be an interesting conversation piece at gatherings. Details pertaining to its availability and price will probably be revealed at CES 2009 where it is expected to make its grand debut. As for the here and now, it has definitely caught my attention though I really wouldn’t consider getting one if it does go on sale in the local market. How about you guys? Will you buy the LG GD910 watch phone if it becomes available locally?

With the start of a brand new year, Samsung is ready to get rid of the old and offer up something new for their loyal customers; the S8300. This slider is set to replace their current flagship phone, the Soul U900. While it does look slightly less impressive in terms of design as compared to its predecessor, it does feature the same anti-scratch and anti-fingerprint coated duraluminum material used in the Soul. On the features end, I have no complaints whatsoever with its rumored specs. With a 2.8-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, 8-megapixel CCD camera with autofocus, optical joystick and 7.2Mbps HSDPA connectivity, how can you go wrong with that? Of course, everything can’t be considered official just yet until Samsung makes the grand reveal which will either happen in CES this month or at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month. Rest assured, we’ll give you guys posted once we get the latest info on their new flagship phone.

It looks like LG has finally decided to hop onboard the dual-SIM bandwagon with the announcement of their new touchscreen phone, the KS660.

This new touchscreen mobile phone comes with a decently-sized 3-inch WQVGA display, a whopping 5-megapixel camera with auto focus and flash, 50MB internal memory and support for microSDHC card for additional storage. Unfortunately, while it does manage to support to SIM cards, it doesn’t come with either WiFi or 3G which is a real deal-breaker considering how sexy it actually looks. Don’t get too excited about it just yet as it is currently confirmed to be hitting only China and Russia at the moment. Similarly, the LG KS660 is already confirmed to be skipping North America and Western Europe, but we have yet to hear if it will also be bypassing Southeast Asia.

The first ever Windows Mobile-powered smartphone from Sony Ericsson maybe considered as a successful venture for the company into the world of QWERTY-enabled touchscreen phones, but it seems that not all is well between Sony Ericsson and their XPERIA X1 manufacturer, HTC. Word is that Sony Ericsson is in talks with Mobinova regarding the production of their next XPERIA phone. There are no specifics as to what the next XPERIA phone will come with as this latest news is yet to be confirmed as well. For what it’s worth, if indeed there will be a changing of the guard as far as the manufacturer of the XPERIA series is concerned, we’re hoping that it will lead to a considerable reduction in overall price since the X1 is a tad bit too expensive, in my opinion, to become a certified hit in the market. Anyway, we’ll probably get confirmation on whether this bit of news is legit or not in the coming months. Rest assured, we’ll keep you guys posted on the latest developments regarding this matter.