The Technophilez

Sony Ericsson unveiled a range of new phones, including its first phone using Microsoft's software.

The handset maker, a joint-venture between Sony and Ericsson  of Sweden, launched 7 new phones, including the Xperia phone brand targeting the business market with the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating platform. The Xperia X1 phone, with a 3-inch touchscreen and stylus, is the first phone the company has launched using Microsoft's software, joining rivals Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE) and Motorola Inc. (MOT), which already use the technology.

It also launched the G900 touchscreen phone, with a 5-megapixel camera and WiFi Internet connectivity. The phone also has a 2.4-inch touchscreen, drawing parallels with the iPhone.

"It's very important for us as a growing business to extend the Sony Ericsson brand to new users," said Steve Walker, head of portfolio planning at Sony Ericsson. "These new phones are helping us achieve this."

Lifting the curtain on the Mobile World Congress telephone trade show in Barcelona, Sony Ericsson also launched the G700 model 2.4-inch touchscreen phone and the W980 clamshell-model, with 8-gigabytes of internal memory to store up to 8,000 songs.

Two new Cybershot camera phones were also launched: the C902 12-millimeter thin camera phone with a 5-megapixel camera that can store 700 photos; and the C702 Cybershot splash- and dust-proof phone, with a 3.2-megapixel camera, built- in global positioning system and Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Google Maps.

The Z770 high-speed Internet clamshell phone will also go on sale by this summer, the company said.

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC sold 2 million of the Microsoft-based mobile phones it developed to compete with the iPhone last year, the 'Touch' family of handsets.

At last week's Macworld Expo in San Francisco Apple CEO Steve Jobs said his company had sold 4 million iPhones since launch.

The HTC Touch uses Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 software and has a touch screen that takes up most of its face, similar to the iPhone. The Touch was launched in June of last year, just weeks ahead of the iPhone.

The company sold 11.8 million handsets overall last year, an roughly 12 percent increase over 2006, executives said.

Strong sales of the handset helped HTC's revenue grow nearly 12 percent last year as well, and the company already sees good prospects for the first quarter of this year.

"The first quarter looks good, it will be a lot better than our first quarter last year," said Peter Chou, president and CEO of HTC, at a year-end party Friday evening. Companies in Taiwan and throughout China typically host parties around this time of year as the Lunar New Year is approaching.

Some of the global economic issues that have hurt stock markets, including subprime mortgages and fears of recession in the U.S. have no impacted HTC so far in the first quarter.

"We've seen no impact from global economic turmoil. We feel pretty good about this quarter," said Chou.

Sanyo Electric Co. said Monday it will sell its troubled mobile phone operations to Kyocera Corp.

The two electronics companies have said the value of the business to be transferred is about 40 billion yen ($374 million). Including debt the deal — set for completion April 1 — is worth about 50 billion yen ($467 million), although the companies have yet to agree on a final transaction price.

Sanyo started making mobile phones in 1994 and has supplied several key mobile phone carriers for both in and outside the country.

But the company faced "intensified competition from rival companies," Sanyo said in a statement. "In order to meet the best interest of the business and its stockholders, Sanyo has ... concluded that a transfer of the business to Kyocera would be the ideal solution."

The long-anticipated sale of the mobile phone unit comes months after Goldman Sachs and other investors saved Sanyo in a 300 billion yen ($2.8 billion) bailout.

Sanyo's former president was ousted last year after he refused to make major reforms. Sanyo has already sold its small mobile phone retail business and dumped its remaining holdings in Sanyo Electric Credit Co.

Under Monday's agreement, about 2,000 employees in Sanyo's mobile phone operation will be transferred to Kyocera, which will continue to use the Sanyo brand on handsets at home and overseas.

Sanyo's widespread businesses include TVs and other home appliances, but the company has said it has set solar and battery operations as its core business. The company is aiming to book a group net profit this fiscal year through March for the first time in four years.

Kyocera has close ties with telecommunications company KDDI Corp.

Sanyo shares fell 5.04 percent Monday and Kyocera declined 3.6 percent amid a general sell-off in Asian markets. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index dropped 3.9 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 5.5 percent.

Google's Android handset project got its first stack of open source Linux software Monday, according to an announcement from A La Mobile, a startup company that said it has successfully demonstrated its platform on HTC's Qtek 9090 smartphone.

The announcement was made by A La Mobile's president and CEO, Pauline Lo Alker, a West Coast high-tech serial entrepreneur. The software includes a browser, phone dialer, audio player, maps, camera, games, calendar, contacts manager, calculator, tasks manager, and notes.

A La Mobile, which had been developing Linux mobile software for handsets before the founding of the Android Open Handset Alliance last year, is not a member of the 30-member, Google-inspired Android. But HTC is a member.

Alker said that A La Mobile's platform will cut the time to market of Android handsets in half.

"We believe it is our responsibility to take the initiative to allay the 'mystery' and dispel any skepticism surrounding Android by first demonstrating a complete mobile Linux system stack, including drives, middleware, and a suite of Android-based applications," Alker said in a statement.

A La Mobile indicated it will fill gaps in the Android program by providing framework and application programming interfaces that will attract third-party developers to create unified applications. A La Mobile noted that the Android effort's planned release of source code bodes well for the alliance, but that Android has lacked a complete off-the-shelf software stack.

A La Mobile is backed by Venrock Associates, a venture capital firm that has funded several successful high-tech companies. Alker has led a series of successful startups including Counterpoint Computers, which was acquired by Acer. She had several positions at Acer, including president of Acer America's sales and marketing. She is a director of Tektronix.

LAS VEGAS - U.S. TV broadcasters will be ready to start transmitting signals for portable electronics like cell phones next year, the developers of the technology, LG Electronics Inc. and Harris Corp., said Sunday.

The technology represents a chance for broadcasters to challenge cell-phone carriers, who are trying to sew up the market for mobile TV with their own transmissions.

"This is going to let broadcasters get back in the game," said Howard Lance, chairman and chief executive of Harris, which makes broadcasting equipment.

But it's doubtful that the Mobile Pedestrian Handheld, or MPH, receivers developed by LG will make it into cell phones in the U.S. market, which is tightly controlled by the carriers.

LG's president and chief technology officer, Woo Paik, said MPH is also suitable for other portable devices, like media players, navigation devices and laptops. The cost to build TV reception capabilities into these would be "minimal," Paik said at a news conference ahead of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Broadcasters "realize the great opportunity out there in reaching customers who are now more and more on the move," Lance said.

Harris has conducted field trials of MPH in Chicago and Washington. Expanded trials will be conducted this year, and broad coverage is planned for 2009, Lance said.

MPH uses an available part of the digital TV broadcast spectrum, and the necessary equipment is easily added to existing TV towers, LG and Harris said.

Competing technologies include MediaFLO, developed by Qualcomm Inc. and deployed by Verizon Wireless, and DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld), championed by Nokia Corp. and adopted overseas.