The previously unknown CloudMobile smartphone has received the 2012 iF design award, which recognizes an outstanding achievement in design, according to Pocket-lint. The device is the latest flagship handset to come from Taiwanese manufacturer Acer, and it is expected to be unveiled at this month’s Mobile World Congress trade show. The CloudMobile is rumored to feature a 4.3-inch high-definition display, Dolby sound and Android 4.0, and it is less than 10 millimeters thick. According to Acer, the handset is the first smartphone to offer AcerCloud technology, which “enhances mobile productivity by providing seamless document management.” The CloudMobile smartphone is currently slated to launch in the third quarter of 2012.

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Samsung has confirmed that the company will not be holding a press event at this month’s Mobile World Congress trade show, reports to PCMag. At last year’s event the company introduced the Galaxy S II smartphone and in 2010 it announced its Bada mobile operating system. Samsung may still have product introductions at the show, however it will not debut them on the big stage. The company previously confirmed that the highly anticipated Galaxy S III smartphone would not be announced at the event, and BGR exclusively reported in December that Samsung has plans to unveil a new high-end tablet with a high-definition display at Mobile World Congress, though the status of those plans may have changed in light of this new development. The show runs from February 26th until March 1st.

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LG recently began teasing a new smartphone that could very well make its debut during the Mobile World Congress trade show later this month. The device, dubbed the Optimus Vu, will offer a 5-inch display with a 4:3 aspect ratio, and rumor has it the phone will also come equipped with a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 8GB of storage, support for NFC, 1GB of RAM and an 8-megapixel camera. Unfortunately, the Optimus Vu will reportedly run Android 2.3 Gingerbread instead of the latest Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) operating system. So far we’re not seeing a whole lot to be excited about other than the massive screen, since most of the specs are similar to what we’ve already seen in the LG Optimus LTE phone. We expect LG will have more surprises up its sleeve during the show, however.

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Nokia will unveil at least one new high-end smartphone during the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona later this month, Forbes said Tuesday. The Finnish company announced the Lumia 900, a Windows Phone device destined for AT&T, during the Consumer Electronics Show in early January but consumers are still waiting to hear what the company will launch as a follow-up to the Lumia 800 in Europe. Early rumors suggested that Nokia was planning to announce a Lumia 910 device with HSPA+ connectivity and a 12-megapixel camera, but Nokia recently shot down rumors of the camera upgrade. BGR will be reporting live from Mobile World Congress later this month so be we’ll be sure to bring you all the news as it breaks.

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HTC on Monday reported that the company’s fourth quarter earnings missed analysts’ estimates. While speaking on the vendor’s earnings call, HTC’s chief financial officer said that the manufacturer ”dropped the ball” with its 2011 devices, SlashGear reports. Winston Yung admitted that the company’s LTE handsets were too thick, offered insufficient battery life and that there was plenty of work to be done to improve both “design and components.” Products launched in the fourth quarter “are not selling as we expected,” Yung said. New phones are on the way, however, and HTC’s next-generation smartphones are expected to be revealed later this month. BGR exclusively reported this past November that HTC will unveil the Ville at Mobile World Congress along side the company’s quad-core flagship HTC Edge.

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Last Monday, the HTC Ville was shown off running Android 4.0 and Sense 4.0 in a leaked video. Four new images recently published by ePrice reveal the handset’s thin design and give a slightly clearer look at HTC’s new Sense 4.0 UI, which features a revamped clock and icon dock. As BGR exclusively reported in November, the Ville is expected to debut at Mobile World Congress later this month and sport a case that is less than 8 millimeters thick. The smartphone will feature a 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display and will be powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor. Other expected specs include a 1,650 mAh battery, Beats audio and an 8-megapixel rear camera with 1080p HD video capture support. Additional images of the HTC Ville can be seen after the break.

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Global smartphone vendors including Samsung, HTC, Nokia and LG are expected to launch new smartphone models in the second quarter to avoid competing directly with the iPhone 4S, according to Digitimes. “Mainly due to hot sales of the iPhone 4S, Apple recorded the largest global smartphone market share of 23.9% in the fourth quarter of 2011, followed by Samsung with 23.5% and Nokia with 12.6%,” the publication’s supply-chain sources said citing data from Strategy Analytics. “Based on previous experience, sales of iPhone 4S will remain at peak in the first quarter of 2012 and then begin to decline.” Samsung, HTC, Nokia and LG are all expected to unveil new smartphone models this year’s Mobile World Congress on February 27th, but devices supposedly won’t begin rolling out until the second quarter.

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ASUS has confirmed that the company is planning to announce a tweaked version of its tablet-smartphone hybrid at Mobile World Congress on February 27th in Barcelona, Spain, according to Modaco. The Padfone — which combines a smartphone, tablet and netbook all in one — was first unveiled at the Computex trade show in Taiwan last year by ASUS chairman Jonney Shih. The innovative device is expected to feature Ice Cream Sandwich and Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon S4 processor. The PadFone consists of a 4.3-inch handset that has the ability dock inside a 10.1-inch tablet, which in turn can be docked into the Transformer’s (or possibly Transformer Prime’s) keyboard. When the device debuts next month, it is rumored to be redesigned with a slimmer form factor, and the the physical buttons seen on a PadFone prototype have reportedly been removed in favor of Ice Cream Sandwich’s on-screen controls.

[Via AndroidAndMe]

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After the rumored cancellation of Samsung’s Galaxy S III debut at next month’s Mobile World Congress, we were left wondering what the South Korean company will unveil instead. Samsung promised “interesting stuff” in place of the Galaxy S III, according to Android And Me a new Galaxy Tab featuring the updated Exynos 5250 processor may be just that. The next-generation tablet will reportedly feature a dual-core 2GHz Exynos 5250 processor, a display larger than 10 inches with WXQGA (2560 x 1600 pixels) resolution and will run the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. The rumor apparently stems from a prototype tablet the site’s staff spotted during this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. The Exynos 5250 processor, which was announced last November, is the Samsung’s first mobile processor to feature ARM’s latest Cortex-A15 CPU core. The chip should produce twice the computing power, increased memory bandwidth, and five times the graphics horsepower as the current generation of CPUs, as well as all-day battery life.

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Earlier this week, an image of Sony’s upcoming ST25i “Kumquat” smartphone leaked onto the Internet. The Android-powered device is rumored to feature a 3.5-inch qHD display with a 1GHZ dual-core processor and 5-megapixel rear camera. It is also rumored that the handset will debut at next month’s Mobile World Congress in Spain. According to a document found on the website of Indonesia’s telecom authority (similar to our FCC), the ST25i Kumquat is listed as the “Sony Ericsson Xperia U” —  although by the time it is officially unveiled, it will likely drop the Ericsson label and be known simply as the Sony Xperia U.

[Via GSMArena]

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The highly anticipated follow up to Samsung’s Galaxy S II will not be unveiled at next month’s Mobile World Congress, according to The Verge. The Galaxy S III was rumored to be debuting in Barcelona next month, however it has reportedly now been delayed. The reason for delay was not disclosed, although it is still slated to be released “before summer” according to the report. The Galaxy S II was announced at last year’s Mobile Wold Congress, but Samsung is said to have been uncomfortable with the long delay between the global launch and availability in the U.S., where it is the most popular Android vendor. The company will still feature “interesting stuff” in place of the Galaxy S III, perhaps an updated Galaxy Tab or even a new Windows Phone handset.

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Next month we’re sure to hear about the latest smartphones from several of the world’s largest phone makers during Mobile World Congress, however that hasn’t stopped a number of leaks from occurring ahead of the show. The latest is a possible image of what is presumed to be Sony’s upcoming ST25i “Kumquat” Android smartphone. Specs are still slim at this point and we’re a bit suspicious since it still features the “Sony Ericsson” branding, but this could easily be an early prototype since even the smartphones on display at CES featured the Sony Ericsson name. Sony recently announced it was purchasing Ericsson’s stake in the Sony Ericsson joint venture and its newest phones are now branded “Sony,” but Xperia Blog, which leaked the image, said Sony may still launch devices with Sony Ericsson branding. 

[Via Engadget]

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Images and specs of a new LG phone codenamed the “CX2″ were recently leaked. The phone is thought to possibly be the successor to the Optimus 3D and may be unveiled during the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona next month. Pocketnow, which leaked the image and specs, says the CX2 sports a dual-core Texas Instruments processor clocked at 1.2GHz, a NOVA display capable of displaying 3D content, a 5-megapixel camera capable of snapping 3D photos, 8GB of storage, Bluetooth 3.0, NFC and support for 21Mbps HSPA+ networks. The phone could launch as soon as this spring, but unfortunately the phone is said to run on Google’s older Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) operating system rather than Ice Cream Sandwich. A second image of the CX2 follows after the break.

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LG may announce a quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) phone during Mobile World Congress next month. Pocketnow recently leaked an image and details on the X3, which also reportedly offers a large 4.7-inch 1280 x 720-pixel resolution display, an 8-megapixel camera, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat, NFC, a huge 2,000 mAh battery and possible support for HSPA 21Mbps or 4G LTE networks. The X3 will no doubt have stiff competition at the show; Samsung is also expected to announce its quad-core powered Galaxy S III smartphone. BGR will be reporting live from Mobile World Congress, so we’ll be sure to bring you all the details if and when the X3 makes an appearance.

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On January 13th, Samsung filed trademarks for “Samsung Joy” and “Samsung Fresh.” Both trademarks were registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and labeled as “telephones; smart phones; mobile phones; computer software for mobile phones, portable media players and handheld computers.” No other details were given, but we could certainly see related announcements at next month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

[Via MobileSyrup]

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