Seen exclusively, an 8.1% rise in operating profit is pretty remarkable. But when you consider that rival NTT DoCoMo just posted a 41% boost in profits... well, you get the point. Unsurprisingly, Softbank was able to increase its profits by reducing the amount of subsidies it applied to phones -- which obviously led to fewer new handset sales overall -- but analysts were still perturbed by the amount of discounts it did hand over. Reportedly, the street was expecting operating profits to top ¥86.1 billion ($805.7 million), but the outfit wound up missing the mark by a cool billion yen ($9.36 million). As for the iPhone 3G influence? Gotta wait 'til next quarter, bub.

[Via mocoNews]

Sanjay Jha has a fairly daunting task ahead of him, but the new co-CEO is already vowing to stomp his foot down and make some changes for the better within three months. While speaking to an audience of analysts and media, the new Motorola exec stated that he would be reviewing the firm's device platforms / product roadmap within 90 days, and he's also planning to make "hires in areas where he doesn't have experience." Thankfully, that latter tidbit includes hires in product design, which -- judging by the looks of its Alexander -- really needs some fresh brains to step in. Of course, we wouldn't expect a new bigwig to say anything other than this, so the real test comes in T-minus eighty-some-odd days when we see how he delivers. The clock's ticking, Mr. Jha.

Say what you will about PETA's beliefs, but if there's one thing that group proves, it's that there is power in numbers. Verizon Wireless had been fairly adamant that it would continue airing its pit bull ad for the LG Dare -- which shows a pair of the dogs chained up in a junkyard guarding heaps of metal and a misplaced handset -- but after PETA issued an "action alert" that triggered 7,000 emails to the outfit's CEO, its tune changed. For those longing to waste another 30 seconds of their life watching the spot that will never again air on the small screen, click on past the break.

We can't really vituperate the i900 Omnia's standard looks, but we must say, this thing looks striking in white. Yeah, it's only the back panel (read: battery cover) getting the makeover, but word on the street has it that this thing will actually be offered in white (with the obligatory wavy pattern) in at least some regions of the world. So, what say you? Is this the model that now has your eye? Or does the original still do it for you?

Verizon Wireless announced its intentions to snap up Rural Cellular way back in July of last year, and as these things tend to go, it has taken a full 13 months for the FCC to green light the deal. Said agency has just issued a "conditional approval" for the acquisition, but it noted that one of the companies will be required to "sell licenses in six markets in order to improve competition." More specifically, the outfits will have to "shed licenses in several parts of Vermont, one area of New York state and two areas of Washington state." Nothing too earth-shattering, but it's good to see the books (almost) closed on this one.

[Via PhoneScoop]

It doesn't take a finance major to figure out these two things are correlated, but yes, the fact that NTT DoCoMo saw profits increase some 41% while handset sales across Japan plummeted 20% do in fact have a common link. You see, DoCoMo (among others) has decided to lower rates and reduce subsidies in order to better exploit market conditions; the end result is that consumers are buying new handsets less often, leading to decreased sales for firms like Sharp and Matsushita. Many analysts are suggesting that some of the smaller outfits are likely to band together in an attempt to take on the new market, with IDC analyst Michito Kimura proclaiming that Japan would have "fewer mobile phone makers, fewer handset sales agents and fewer cellphone models." Hard to say if that's a net positive or negative just yet, but it should be interesting to watch, regardless.

[Via mocoNews, image courtesy of Flickr]

MobiTV has been around for quite awhile, and although it has seen its fair share of ups and downs, today's a day for celebration in the offices that remain. After hitting the 3 million mark in February, the company is now claiming that its benefiting from some 4 million subscriptions. Charlie Nooney, MobiTV's CEO, was quoted as saying that the firm was "thrilled to be on the cusp of mass market acceptance for mobile entertainment in North America." We don't know if we'd go that far just yet, but here's a tip of the hat to you anyway.

[Via RCRWireless, image courtesy of PDAsNews]

No, no -- Sammy wouldn't dare dub this the Mullet, although we have a sneaking suspicion it would sell quite well here in the south if such a bold decision were made. Nevertheless, the i7110c (that's more like it, no?) has just been revealed, and while a great deal of mystery still surrounds it, we are told that it will likely boast a QVGA display, a navigational cube that acts as a cursor controller, 5-megapixel camera (with flash), microSD expansion slot, multimedia player, Bluetooth and an FM tuner. We must say, we're strangely attracted to the harmonious mix of business-like design cues and consumer-friendly attributes, though it would be nice if Samsung came on out and made this thing official.

Surely that "last stand" Motorola handset is still burned into your memory, right? No? Anywho, said mobile was just given a face courtesy of Boy Genius, and it's an, um, interesting face at that. We'll let you be the judge on its unsightliness (or beauty, depending on inebriation level), but aside from design, we're expecting this one to include Windows Mobile 6.1, NVIDIA graphics, a 5- to 8-megapixel camera, A-GPS and a Q4 release date. As always, we'll be keeping an ear to the ground for more.

There's no doubt that both of HTC's forthcoming handsets (yeah, the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro) are coming to Sprint and Verizon. What we're still curious about, however, are the respective launch dates and the eventual names. phoneArena has it that the Touch Diamond will go by HTC Victor on Sprint and HTC Diamond on Verizon, with the former packing a slightly speedier CPU, an aluminum frame, accelerometer, 4GB of internal memory and EV-DO Rev. A support. As for Verizon's, expect it to boast half the RAM (128MB), a wimpier CPU, microSD expansion slot and a stainless steel frame. Moving on, we're told that the Touch Pro will be rechristined HTC Herman for Sprint and HTC Raphael (nice to re-meet you!) for The Network. Finally, we're clued in on a September 2nd release date for Sprint's Victor, while the Herman is expected a month later. As for Verizon? It'll probably be 30 or so days behind in both instances thanks to a presumed exclusivity agreement with its nemesis. Get all that?

First things first: open wide and ingest a mouthful of salt. Put away that bitter beer face and down it, we said! Okay, now that you're adequately skeptical, get a load of this. Word on the street has it that Nokia is currently working with Microsoft in order to integrate the Zune Marketplace into the former firm's handsets. No, there's no talk of a Zune Phone here -- no new hardware at all, actually. Instead, it seems the two could be figuring out a way to offer Zune Marketplace content on Nokia's prolific "non-smartphones." Make no mistake, Nokia sells quite a few low-end handsets, and if the Redmond powerhouse could get its material on 'em... well, we're pretty sure you see where this could go. Oh, and we're totally not buying this until N-Gage pops up on the Xbox 360.

[Via Electronista]

All but the most affluent among us have likely purged the pricey Meridiist from our memories, but if you've ever wondered what exactly a £2,650 ($5,162) cellphone looks like (and really, who hasn't?), you'll definitely want to check this out. The fine folks over at Stuff were able to point their camera at TAG Heuer's exquisite handset ever-so-briefly, and while the images tell half the story, the folks handling it told the other. The chunky phone reportedly reeked of unnecessary luxury and was built solidly, but we didn't get the impression that they were champing at the bit to call this a bargain. At any rate, there are a few more shots where this one came from (that would be the read link, for the uninitiated).

It's one thing to buy a Chinese impression of a Nokia candybar -- you know, something only the fanboys will notice as out of place. It's another to fool only yourself by opting for this over the real deal. The Vertu Ascent Ferrari clone operates on GSM networks and features a 1.8-inch 220 x 176 resolution display, USB connector, 128MB of internal storage, support for MP3 ringtones and MMS capabilities (take that, iPhone!). Excuse us, we're feeling a little sick from staring at this abomination...

Okay, so we saw W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices offered up in "near-final form" in June of 2006, but we're just now (August of 2008, for those parked under a rock or tuning in from a parallel universe) seeing a final release. Talk about taking their sweet time. Hopefully said document has been updated over the past two years, and hopefully webmasters will grab hold and actually implement some of the suggestions. In essence, these guidelines seek to make web browsing easier on more handsets, but we're still in dire need of more robust browsers before any server-side tweaks make a noticeable difference.

[Via the::unwired]

For those still thinking that flexible displays are far from being widely accessible, think again. E Ink has just announced that its Vizplex Imaging Film-based displays will be used in handsets by Casio Hitachi Mobile Communications. For starters, the Hitachi W61H (already available) boasts a 2.7-inch E Ink display that can scroll through 96 different images whenever a call is received or the clamshell is cracked open; the Casio G'zOne (shown after the jump) will feature the same technology on its secondary "silhouette display." Details beyond that are pretty scant, but the real news here is that these displays are finally making their way into reasonably affordable handsets. Open up the flood gates, we say.

[Via SlashPhone]