One week after dismissing Samsung’s first German patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, a German court has also rejected a second suit, reports Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents. Judge Andreas Voss of Germany’s Mannheim Regional Court on Friday addressed Samsung’s argument that certain 3G and UMTS technology in Apple’s iPhones infringes the South Korean company’s patents. The Judge dismissed these claims early Friday morning, however he did not immediately offer an explanation for his decision. Mueller, who attended the pronouncement, says the outcome of Samsung’s suit may be based on the validity of the specific patent in question, in which case Samsung could still prevail in any of its three other 3G/UMTS-related patent complaints it filed against Apple in Mannheim. Samsung originally brought five suits against Apple in Germany, claiming Apple’s mobile devices infringe various 3G/UMTS wireless standards patents it holds.

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More than 50% of all phones sold this year will be capable of running on 4G or 3G data networks, according to a new report from ABI Research. “As the festive cheer of the holiday season dies away, the mood among handset vendors remains quietly confident regarding 2012,” Jake Saunders, vice president of forecasting for ABI Research said. “The outlook will yield growth in the order of 8%, netting 1.67 billion handsets shipped worldwide by the end of 2012. Particularly notable is for the first time, 3G and 4G handset shipments will capture more than 50% of total handsets shipped.” Read on for more.

ABI Research also said Samsung has continued to push its smartphones into emerging markets while Apple is targeting South America and Brazil and seeing more success in China than it has in India. “North America may only represent 15% of feature and smartphone units shipped globally, but due to the high proportion of high-end smartphone sales, it constitutes 40% of total smartphones sold by value. It underscores what is at stake in the patent battles between Apple, Samsung, Motorola, Google, HTC, Microsoft, and even British Telecom,” says Kevin Burden, vice president and practice director, mobile devices.

3G and 4G Handsets Will Capture More than 50% of Handset Sales in 2012

SINGAPORE – January 5, 2012

“As the festive cheer of the holiday season dies away, the mood among handset vendors remains quietly confident regarding 2012,” observes Jake Saunders, vice president of forecasting. “The outlook will yield growth in the order of 8%, netting 1.67 billion handsets shipped worldwide by the end of 2012. Particularly notable is for the first time, 3G and 4G handset shipments will capture more than 50% of total handsets shipped.”
In the second half of 2011, tier one smartphone vendors began redoubling efforts to promote their smartphone line-up to upwardly mobile, aspirational smartphone owners in emerging markets. Samsung, with its varied smartphone segmentation strategy, has been making substantial inroads into the emerging country smartphone market. Apple is expanding sales channels in emerging markets, with greater success in China than it’s having in India, but is also targeting South American markets such as Brazil. HTC is gaining traction in China, but developed markets such as North America and Europe continue to be the mainstay of its “ship into” markets. RIM, despite its weakness in apps-capable smartphone markets, continues to do well in messaging-centric emerging markets such as Indonesia. Nokia hopes to benefit from Windows Phone 7 Lumia series launches in India (Dec-2011) and China (in 1Q-2012).

The North American handset market, driven primarily by smartphones, is proving oblivious to the Euroland debt crisis. North America is estimated to have closed 2011 with 228 million handsets shipped, for a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 14%, the region’s highest YoY growth in more than five years.

“North America may only represent 15% of feature and smartphone units shipped globally, but due to the high proportion of high-end smartphone sales, it constitutes 40% of total smartphones sold by value. It underscores what is at stake in the patent battles between Apple, Samsung, Motorola, Google, HTC, Microsoft, and even British Telecom,” says Kevin Burden, vice president and practice director, mobile devices.

ABI Research’s new study, “Mobile Device Shipment Market Data,” provides critical data on vendor market share, vendor ASPs, and handset shipments.

It is part of the firm’s Smartphones & Mobile Devices Research Service.

Sprint, a carrier that often touts itself as the only carrier with “truly unlimited” data plans, actually throttles its heaviest data users. Speaking at an investor conference on Thursday, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse admitted that Sprint imposes limits the top 1% of data hogs. “For those that want to abuse it, we can knock them off,” Hesse said. The executive explained that Sprint needs to throttle — or slow down the data speeds — of its heaviest users in order to make room for the growing number of smartphone users on its 3G and 4G WiMAX networks. Earlier on Thursday Sprint detailed its first 4G LTE markets, which will roll out in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio during the first half of this year.

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Verizon Wireless was the first major carrier to launch its super fast 4G LTE network in the United States. Being the first comes with its fair share of problems, however. Earlier this week Verizon’s 4G LTE network suffered its third major outage in the month of December. In an interview with GigaOM, Verizon Wireless vice president of Network Engineering Mike Haberman responded with:

Being the pioneers, we’re going to experience some growing pains. These issues we’ve been experiencing are certainly regrettable but they were unforeseeable.

Haberman went on to blame all three outages on the process of replacing old signaling architectures used in 2G and 3G networks while on 4G, known as the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). Ever since April, IMS has caused problems leading to network failures. After fixing various software bugs, users were able to again reconnect to 3G EV-DO and 4G LTE services. However, the IMS glitches returned in December and have caused the company headaches. The first outage on December 7th was caused by the failure of a back-up communications database. The second, last week, was the result of an IMS element not responding properly, while Wednesday’s outage was caused by two IMS elements not communicating properly, Haberman told GigaOM. In a statement released by the company, Verizon says that it will not rest until their 4G LTE network performs at the highest levels that customers have come to expect.

Read [GigaOM] Read [Verizon]

Verizon Wireless users are once again suffering from a widespread 4G LTE and 3G EV-DO data outage. The outage is the third one of the month and only seems to be affecting users with 4G LTE devices. A recording on Verizon’s support line reveals that the company is aware of the issue and working to fix it, but no indication was given as far as when service might be restored. We have received reports stating that service is out across the country, with confirmed outages in parts of New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and other regions.

UPDATE: Verizon Wireless issued BGR the following statement on the outage: “We are investigating reports of some customers experiencing trouble accessing the 4GLTE network. The network itself continues to operate and all customers continue to be able to make calls, send text messages and utilize data services. 3G devices are operating normally.”

Deutsche Telekom recently detailed the breakup terms AT&T agreed to following the deterioration of its planned acquisition of T-Mobile USA. Deutsche Telekom will receive $3 billion in cash and T-Mobile USA will benefit from fresh AWS spectrum as well as a new 7-year 3G roaming deal with AT&T. “As part of the break-up fee, T-Mobile USA will receive a large package of AWS mobile spectrum in 128 Cellular Market Areas (CMAs), including 12 of the top 20 markets (Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, Baltimore and Seattle),” Deutsche Telekom said in a statement. “The UMTS roaming agreement for the U.S. in T-Mobile USA’s favor has a term of over seven years and will allow the company to improve its footprint significantly among the U.S. population and offer its customers better broadband coverage for mobile communications services in the future.” The company also said that T-Mobile USA’s 3G network will grow from blanketing 230 million potential customers to covering 280 million people. Deutsche Telekom’s full press release follows below.

AT&T and Deutsche Telekom terminate agreement on the sale of T-Mobile USA

Dec 19, 2011

• Deutsche Telekom receives record high break-up fee
• AT&T will pay Deutsche Telekom USD 3 billion in cash
• T-Mobile USA will receive a large package of Advanced Wireless Solutions (AWS) spectrum and long-term national UMTS roaming agreement
• Deutsche Telekom’s guidance and planned dividend policy remain unchanged

U.S. telecommunications company AT&T Inc. and Deutsche Telekom have terminated the agreement on the sale of T-Mobile USA to AT&T. As a result, AT&T will pay Deutsche Telekom the break-up fee agreed in the contract signed by both companies dated March 20, 2011. This is one of the highest payments ever agreed between two companies for the termination of a purchase agreement. It includes a cash payment of USD 3 billion to Deutsche Telekom, which is expected to be made by the end of this year. In addition, it contains a large package of mobile communications spectrum and a long-term agreement on UMTS roaming within the U.S. for T-Mobile USA.

Both companies are in agreement that the broad opposition by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) and the U.S. telecommunications regulator (FCC) is making it increasingly unlikely that the transaction will close. Both companies are of the opinion that important arguments in support of the transaction have been ignored, such as the significant improvement in high-speed mobile network coverage for the U.S. market, as well as the positive employment effects. In addition there was no indication that either authority would move away from it’s non-supportive stance in return for concessions from the parties in terms of the scope and structure of the transaction.

As part of the break-up fee, T-Mobile USA will receive a large package of AWS mobile spectrum in 128 Cellular Market Areas (CMAs), including 12 of the top 20 markets (Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, Baltimore and Seattle).

The UMTS roaming agreement for the U.S. in T-Mobile USA’s favor has a term of over seven years and will allow the company to improve its footprint significantly among the U.S. population and offer its customers better broadband coverage for mobile communications services in the future. Population coverage will increase from 230 million potential customers at present to 280 million. As a result of the agreement with AT&T, coverage will be extended to many regions of the U.S. in which T-Mobile USA previously had neither its own high-speed mobile communications network nor the associated roaming agreements.

The termination of the agreement means Deutsche Telekom will go back to reporting T-Mobile USA as continuing operations in future. Deutsche Telekom’s guidance for the 2011 financial year remains unchanged as a result of this development, with adjusted EBITDA of around EUR 19.1 billion expected. At EUR 6.5 billion, free cash flow is forecasted to remain at the prior-year level or increase slightly. The guidance includes the T-Mobile USA contribution based on the average exchange rate in 2010 of USD 1.33 per euro. The free cash flow forecast does not include the settlement payment of EUR 0.4 billion relating to PTC in Poland or the cash payment of USD 3 billion from the break-up fee to be paid by AT&T.

Deutsche Telekom’s dividend policy also remains unchanged. The annual dividend payments are subject to the necessary board resolutions and other legal requirements.

Even following the termination of the agreement with AT&T, Deutsche Telekom exepects to remain within the communicated ranges for certain financial performance indicators used to assess the financial performance of the company. These are as follows: The ratio of net debt to adjusted EBITDA of the Group is to be between 2 and 2.5, the equity ratio is to be between 25 percent and 35 percent, gearing (ratio of net debt to shareholders’ equity) between 0.8 and 1.2, and liquidity reserves is to cover maturities of at least the next 24 months.

The cash component of the break-up fee directly reduces Deutsche Telekom’s net debt, thereby by strengthening the financial performance indicators affecting the company’s rating.

Deutsche Telekom would like to express its gratitude to AT&T and to Randall Stephenson and his team for the positive cooperation over the past few months. Our working relationship was characterized by fairness and respect at all times.

Want to share your iPhone’s 3G connection with your laptop for a one-time $15 fee? iTether recently launched for iOS devices and it allows you do just that, without any carrier involvement. We would use the software with caution, however. Several wireless providers such as AT&T can detect when subscribers are tethering an unauthorized device and they usually send a warning asking users to stop. iTether is available now for anyone looking for a quick tethering solution to get through the day but, since carriers will likely react negatively to its existence, we don’t expect it to be around in its current form for much longer.

UPDATE: It now looks like Apple has pulled iTether, as most presumed it would. As of approximately 11:40 a.m. Eastern, the app still shows up in the store but attempts to download it are met with Apple’s “This item is temporarily unavailable” error.

[Via Engadget]

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Sprint on Monday announced two new less expensive mobile broadband data plans that will replace the carrier’s existing plans. The changes apply to tablets, mobile hotspot devices, netbooks, notebooks and USB modems. Customers may choose between a $49.99 plan that provides 6GB of 3G or 4G data per month or a $79.99 plan that provides 12GB of data per month. Sprint’s plans offer an additional 1GB of data compared to Verizon Wireless’s competing plans, and it hopes that’s a draw for new customers. In addition to the aforementioned plans, Sprint is also introducing a new $19.99 data plan for tablets that provides 1GB of 3G/4G data per month as well as a new $34.99 plan for tablets and mobile hotspots that provides 3GB of data per month. The full press release from Sprint follows after the break.

Sprint Launches New 3G/4G Mobile Broadband Plans, Delivering More Data at a Lower Price Than Competitors

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), November 14, 2011 – Sprint (NYSE: S) today launched new 3G/4G mobile broadband plans that deliver more data at lower prices than similar plans from national competitors. The new plans are available in all Sprint sales channels.

Customers can choose from 6GB of combined on-network 3G/4G data usage for $49.99 per month or 12GB of 3G/4G data usage for $79.99 per month. The new plans deliver 20 percent more data for the same price as similar plans from Verizon and AT&T.

Sprint		Verizon		AT&T
$49.99 per month/6GB		$50 per month/5GB		$50 per month/5GB
$79.99 per month/12GB		$80 per month/10GB		NA

With an extra 1GB of data vs. Verizon and AT&T’s $50/5GB plans, Sprint customers subscribing to the new $49.99/6GB plan will be able to view approximately 6,667 additional Web pages, 2,000 more photos or 67 extra YouTube videos each month.¹

“Sprint is committed to delivering exceptional value to its customers, and our new 3G/4G Mobile Broadband plans are the latest example of that,” said Will Souder, vice president of pricing for Sprint. “Sprint gives customers more data at lower prices than competitors, so they can do more with their mobile broadband devices on Sprint’s 3G and 4G networks.”

The $49.99/6GB and $79.99/12GB plans are compatible with all Mobile Broadband devices sold by Sprint, including tablets, dedicated mobile hotspot devices, USB modems, netbooks and notebooks.

In addition, Sprint is also launching a new plan available for tablets² and dedicated mobile hotspot devices³ priced at $34.99 per month for 3GB of 3G/4G data usage, along with a new plan for tablets priced at $19.99 per month for 1GB of 3G/4G data usage.

Monthly		3G/4G Data		Tablets		Dedicated		USB/Card/
Price						Mobile Hotspot		Netbook/
						Devices		Notebooks
$19.99		1GB		X
$34.99		3GB		X		X
$49.99		6GB		X		X		X
$79.99		12GB		X		X		X
On-Network Overage Rate: $0.05/MB						Off-Network Overage Rate: $0.25/MB4

The new plans replace all previously available Mobile Broadband plans and are available to new and existing customers.

Sprint provides to customers tools to monitor and manage their mobile broadband data usage and avoid overages:

• Customers who have opted-in for notifications will receive email and/or SMS notifications when their 3G/4G data usage has reached 75 percent of their plan limit or higher.
• Customers are also able to view their data usage by logging into My Sprint at www.sprint.com.
• Customers with devices featuring the SmartView application can use the app to view data usage.
• Tablet users can text “usage” to 1311 to receive a text with their current 3G/4G usage.

About Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 53 million customers at the end of 3Q 2011 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 3 in its 2011 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.

¹ These numbers are estimates based on averages of 150kb/Web page, 500kb/photo and 15MB/YouTube video. 1,024kb=1MB. 1,024MB=1GB.

² Casual messaging is included in tablet plans at $0.20/message. Messaging add-on packs also are available. Tablet plans are available in 3G-only version for activation on 3G-only devices. These plans also include casual messaging capabilities with messaging add-on packs available.

³ $34.99 per month/3GB dedicated mobile hotspot device plan is restricted to Sierra Wireless Overdrive Pro 3G/4G mobile hotspot, MiFi 3G/4G mobile hotspot by Novatel Wireless and any future dedicated mobile hotspot devices. 3G-only mobile hotspot plans are available for activation on the 3G ZTE International Hotspot device.

⁴ Off-network data limitation of 100MB or 300MB applies. See www.sprint.com for details.

China Mobile has yet to convince Apple to partner on an iPhone that supports its proprietary TD-SCDMA 3G network, but that hasn’t stopped the carrier from attracting customers to the device. In fact, China Mobile added 5 million new iPhone users in just four months, and it now serves a total of 9.5 million iPhone users, Bloomberg said. Each of those customers can use text, voice and 2G data, and all of the iPhone models it sells are unsubsidized. That may sound like a turnoff, but China Mobile has increased its iPhone user base by building out a nationwide Wi-Fi network to make up for its 3G shortcomings, and the carrier is also offering rebates worth as much as $440. The carrier plans to add an additional 1 million hotspots throughout China during the next three years, too. China Unicom has been an exclusive iPhone partner in China since 2005 and while it has less 3G subscribers than China Mobile, it is able to offer a 3G-capable iPhone because it operates a WCDMA 3G network. 

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Samsung announced the Transform Ultra for Sprint on Monday, an Android 2.3-powered smartphone with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The Transform Ultra is powered by a 1GHz processor and has a 3-megapixel camera, a secondary front-facing VGA camera for video chat, a 3.5-inch touchscreen display with an HVGA resolution, 512MB of RAM, 2GB of on-board storage, a 1,500 mAh battery and support for Sprint’s 3G network. Neither Sprint nor Samsung have announced pricing or a release date for the Transform Ultra, although we suspect it will hit the market in time for the holiday season at a budget-friendly price. Hit the break for Samsung’s fact sheet.

Samsung Transform™ Ultra

Highly-customizable Android experience

Samsung Transform Ultra is a premium android powered device that delivers a truly customizable experience even faster than before and at an affordable price. Samsung Transform Ultra, powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread, features access to Google Mobile™ services and more than 250,000 applications through Android Market. It has a powerful 1GHz processor, a 3MP rear-facing camera and VGA front-facing camera for video chat while on the go. Equipped with Sprint ID users can also completely customize their experience based on their needs and interests. Users can automatically get ringers, wallpapers, apps and widgets downloaded to your phone in one click.

Productivity

• 3.5” HVGA touch screen with full QWERTY keyboard
• 1GHz processor
• Android 2.3 with Sprint ID customizable user interface
• Sprint 3G (EVDO Rev. A) network

Entertainment and Personalization

• Dual Cameras- 3 MP camera and VGA front facing camera
• Sprint ID, a user-friendly means of customizing Android content on mobile phones. Allows users to instantly download ID packs that deliver a predefined experience, including applications, widgets, ringtones and wallpapers, all at once.
• Android Market™ – browse and download thousands of free and paid apps from around the world
• WiFi and GPS capable
• MP3 Player with MicroSD card slot (supports up to 32GB)
• Stereo Bluetooth® Wireless technology

Specifications

• Processor: 1 GHz Qualcomm  MSM8655
• Dimensions: 4.57 x 2.40 x 0.55 inches; 4.9 ounces
• Display: HVGA 480 x 320 pixels
• RAM/ROM: 512MB/2GB
• 1500 mAh Li-ION inner cell battery with up to 7 hours¹ continuous talk time

AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint are all launching the iPhone 4S next Friday, but AT&T is doing its best to ensure consumers know that not all iPhones are created equal. The presence of HSPA 14.4 gives the iPhone 4S a theoretical download speed ceiling of 14.4Mbps, but only if you’re on an HSPA network. Here in the U.S., Verizon Wireless and Sprint both employ EV-DO 3G networks while AT&T customers will enjoy speeds over HSPA that are twice as fast, the company says. ”We can’t wait for our customers to experience the incredible new iPhone 4S on our 4G network and enjoy download speeds of up to twice as fast,” said AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega in a statement. “When you combine the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network with iPhone 4S, as well as our new pricing for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, we think we have the best iPhone line up in the industry.” AT&T’s full press release follows below.

Sony announced on Wednesday that its next-generation portable gaming console, the PlayStation Vita, will launch in Japan on December 17th. Sony also said it has teamed up with Japan-based wireless carrier NTT DoCoMo to provide 3G connectivity on the device. 20 hours of 3G service is priced at $13 while 100 hours will set customers back $65. The system will launch in tandem with Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Square Enix promised to port Final Fantasy X as well. Sony expects to begin taking pre-orders for the Vita on October 15th and said the first 500 units sold will come bundled with 100 hours of free 3G connectivity. We had hands-on time with the Vita during E3 in June. It is expected to launch in the U.S. next year for $249.99 and AT&T will provide stateside 3G connectivity.

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Apple and Sprint are preparing to launch a new version of the iPad 2 at the same time or shortly after a Sprint-compatible iPhone 5 is unveiled this fall, a new report claims. 9to5 Mac states that Apple and Sprint have completed development of an iPad 2 that includes an embedded cellular radio compatible with Sprint’s data network. It is unclear which Sprint data network the tablet will support: the carrier’s older 3G network, its 4G WiMAX network or perhaps even both. No previous reports indicate that Apple has conducted any late-stage development with WiMAX — which Sprint is shifting focus away from moving forward — so a 4G-enabled iPad 2 may not be likely at this point in time. The report also notes that Sprint may offer its unlimited data plan with the iPad 2, as it is expected to do with its iPhone 5.

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Samsung on Monday confirmed that it recently filed a new complaint against Apple in France, alleging that the Cupertino-based company’s iPad and iPhone devices infringe on three Samsung-owned patents. Unlike the case that recently saw a German judge ban sales of Samsung’s GALAXY Tab 10.1 tablet by the company’s local arm, Samsung’s complaint in France covers patents rather than the physical design of the devices in question. The suit targets Apple’s iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G as well as the iPad and iPad 2, and the patents in question cover the UMTS communication standard according to AFP. The complaint was first filed in July and a preliminary hearing will take place in December.

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RIM’s BlackBerry Torch 9850 is the company’s third smartphone to launch with a full touchscreen form factor, following the original Storm and the Storm 2, and it’s the first to launch on Sprint. The 9850 packs brand new hardware and the new BlackBerry 7 operating system into a thin industrial design, but is it enough of an improvement over the earlier Storm devices to warrant your upgrade? Can it compete with other touchscreen smartphones? I’ve been using the Torch 9850 for the past week and my full review of the smartphone follows below.

Hardware

When I went to Toronto in early August to see RIM’s brand new family of BlackBerry smartphones, I walked away most impressed with the Torch 9850. It was thin, I loved the hardware buttons, the onscreen keyboard seemed to work well and I appreciated the rounded edges. After spending a week with the Torch 9850 and the Bold 9930 side by side, I’ve found myself gravitating to the Bold 9930. The Torch 9850 clearly has a high-end design, but it’s not as polished and luxurious feeling as the Bold 9930.

The top of the phone can be pressed to activate the phone’s lock mechanism. The right side is home to rubber volume up/down toggle keys, a camera quick-launch button and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The Torch 9850 has a 3.7-inch 800 x 480-pixel resolution touchscreen display that was more than bright enough for viewing under direct sunlight. It also has four hardware buttons for placing and ending calls, accessing the menu and stepping backwards through menus. There’s an optical trackpad in the middle of all four buttons which worked well but, given the phone’s touchscreen, it wasn’t necessary most of the time.

There’s a 5-megapixel camera and single LED flash on the back of the Torch 9850, and the soft touch finish gives it a nice premium touch. The top, bottom and sides of the phone also have a faux chrome finish, although that has been known to chip off of BlackBerry phones over time. I like the new Torch hardware, but there’s too much plastic in comparison to the brushed metal RIM used on the Bold 9930.

Software

The Torch 9850 is great until you turn it on. The absolute weakest part of the package is RIM’s BlackBerry 7 operating system. It’s painfully stale and even though the Torch packs a 1.2GHz processor, the phone often displayed the infamous spinning pinwheel that lets you know it’s stalling on a task.

BlackBerry OS 7 is not a large improvement over OS 6. In fact, it looks exactly the same when you turn the phone on. There are still eight visible app icons on a menu bar that can be raised or lowered with a single tap. Swiping the menu left or right reveals four other app drawers: Frequent, Downloads, Media and Favorites. BlackBerry OS 7 allows you to deactivate any of those drawers by hitting “Menu” and then “Manage panels.” The operating system offers several other features, but it is still slow and far behind competing operating systems from Apple, Google and Microsoft. Wallpaper lovers be damned, I’m still shocked at the waste of space on the home screen. I’m kicking a dead horse, but RIM needs to move to QNX, stat.

The phone’s software keyboard was adequate although keys were a bit small for my tastes. I found myself frequently making errors with the Torch 9850, despite its auto-correct feature, and I was often annoyed while typing anything at all. Sprint had sent along the Bold 9930 with my Torch 9850, so I used that phone’s stellar hardware keyboard for nearly every task that involved a significant amount of typing.

The Torch 9850’s WebKit web browser is much better than the one found in BlackBerry OS 6. Most websites loaded just fine and I was able to pan around them with minimal lag most of the time. The browser still doesn’t support Adobe Flash content, but that’s certainly not a deal breaker.

I need to address BlackBerry App World because it’s the second biggest letdown about the Torch 9850 aside from the software itself. There are simply not enough good applications available for download. The App World is chock full of mediocre apps, few of which interest me in any way. RIM’s BlackBerry App World is lagging far behind iOS and Android, and I hope RIM has bigger plans for QNX.

Data and Call Quality

Calls placed on the Torch 9850 were solid. Voices sounded clear and I didn’t have many complaints other than the volume buttons were a bit harder to press compared to other phones. I loaded a number of websites rather quickly over Sprint’s EV-DO 3G network and was generally pleased with the data performance. I do wish the carrier worked with RIM to release a 4G WiMAX version of the phone since it has a number of 4G Android devices that will offer faster speeds out of the box for a lower price. While it supports 802.11b/g/n networks I’m shocked that it doesn’t offer a mobile hotspot option for sharing the 3G connection with other Wi-Fi devices.

Camera

I took the Torch 9850 to the beach with me for the weekend and used it to snap a number of photos. I liked how fast the camera was able to capture shots. I did not find the photos particularly impressive however, and the flash often blew out my subject in darker scenes. The Torch 9850 can be used to record 720p video, although I found the quality was not as good as the videos recorded with a number of Android phones I have on my desk. The video was noticeably grainy but I did appreciate the continuous auto-focus.

Battery

I still miss the times when I could go more than two days with my BlackBerry Bold 9700. The Torch 9850 was easily able to make it through a full 24 hours of moderate usage before I needed to charge it again. It also idled very well, so I’d expect it to last longer with light use. If you stick with BlackBerry over Android or iOS for its battery life, you should be generally pleased with the Torch 9850′s performance.

Conclusion

During my review I was approached by a BGR fan asking to see my BlackBerry Bold 9930. “I also have the Torch 9850,” I told him as I took it out of my pocket. He looked at both of them and said, “Yeah, this isn’t for me, I’m definitely more excited for the Bold.” That’s exactly how I feel about the Torch.

The 9850 is decent enough if you require a full touchscreen display, but if you need a BlackBerry and are on Sprint, I’d recommend the Bold 9930 any day, hands-down. It has the best keyboard I’ve ever used and the design is much more beautiful.

RIM created the Torch 9850 to go toe-to-toe with the dozens of full touchscreen smartphones on the market that run iOS, Windows Phone and Android. Unfortunately, because BlackBerry OS 7 is so far behind the pack, the Torch 9850 simply can’t compete.