LG Touch Watch on display

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

LG Touch Watch on display at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona 16 February 2009 Photograph: ALBERT GEA/REUTERS

It is a gadget of which James Bond would be proud and just one of many unveiled at Mobile World Congress yesterday that handset manufacturers hope will give them a much-needed edge over Apple's iPhone as well as countering the deepening recession.

The Touch Watch device launched by LG at the industry's largest annual tradeshow will transport wearers of a certain age back to the days when they played at being a secret agent by talking into their wristwatch. The Touch Watch allows them to talk to a real person.

Orange is expected to launch the LG G910 in the UK later this year. The phone is packed with all the features that consumers expect, including Bluetooth (so it can be attached to a headset) and a small touchscreen.

But for the mobile phone companies, it is just one of many so-called smartphones they hope will keep consumers coming back for more as the recession bites.

A host of devices with touchscreens, internet access and ever more powerful cameras were launched in Barcelona yesterday. Much of the development of these devices was sparked by the launch of Apple's iPhone in summer 2007.

While that device has sold "only" 17m in a market that equates to a billion handsets a year, the iPhone showed that the combination of cutting-edge technology and ease of use could create a real buzz. It also shook the at times cosy relationship between mobile phone networks and handset manufacturers.

Nokia yesterday unveiled its latest smart devices, which it hopes will lure consumers to the world of mobile email. The E55 sports a keypad reminiscent of the BlackBerry Pearl, combining two letters per key to make the phone smaller.

"I believe it is going to really introduce mobile email to a whole new generation of users," said Kai Oistamo, Nokia's executive vice-president of devices. Nokia also unveiled the E75, which has a slide-out qwerty keypad under its full touchscreen.

Sony Ericsson, meanwhile, took the wraps off the Idou, which has a 12.1 megapixel camera, good enough for a professional photographer. It should be available in the UK by Christmas.

A powerful camera is also one of the attractions of Samsung's new Omnia high-definition touchscreen phone, which allows users to watch HD films and videos.

But the day was not all about top-end phones. Samsung announced a new music phone - the BeatDJ - which has been developed in with hi-fi experts Bang & Olufsen and allows users to "scratch" tracks using the touchscreen as a turntable.

Taiwanese handset manufacturer HTC, meanwhile, used the show in Barcelona to release the Touch Diamond 2 and Touch Pro phones. The latter has a host of business-oriented features, including the ability to phone the sender of an email merely by tapping the email.

But it is not just with new handsets that the industry hopes to gain the upper hand against Apple. The company's move into supplying applications which allow users to customise their phones through its iTunes store last year has created phenomenal demand and forced its rivals to unveil their own so-called apps stores.

Nokia has been particularly desperate to hit back at Apple, and it announced the opening of an applications store as part of its Ovi suite of online services.