The Mobile World Congress has seen a raft of new smartphones that will make booking travel via a mobile ever more accessible.

Nokia‘s big launch was its applications store, the Ovi, which will allow Nokia users to download applications such as Facebook, as well as worldwide city guide city.mobi.It also aims to muscle in on the BlackBerry business market with its E55 phone, which it hopes will take the use of mobile email beyond business users. The phone is an updated version of the E71.

“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.

Sony Ericsson aims to gain ground on the iPhone with the Idou. The touchscreen phone comes with a 12.1 megapixel camera, making it the most powerful camera phone on the market, and replacing the need for a digital camera.

The company has also outlined its new mobile internet strategy, Entertainment Unlimited, based on the synergy of images, music and communication.
Steve Walker, VP and head of portfolio planning of Sony Ericsson, said: “We’re explaining our strategic direction here in Barcelona, setting out our roadmap for the next three to five years. In our eight year history, Sony Ericsson has been through two major waves of activity, this is the start of our third wave.”

The company also announced a new Sony Ericsson W995 Walkman optimised for video, which will be available in the second quarter of this year. It is the first Sony Ericsson device to contain the Media Go embedded application.

Samsung has unveiled a number of new touchscreen phones, including the Omnia HD, which can support HD mobile TV. Its 3.7 inch screen is an active matrix organic LED (AMOLED), which uses less power than a traditional screen but has startling resolution and a remarkably wide angle of vision; two new BEAT music phones that embed Bang & Olufsen audio technology; and the Blue Earth device, which Samsung claims is the first solar powered touchscreen.

Samsung is planning to launch 20 new touch devices in 2009 in total. It also announced that it has extended its ‘Mobile Innovator’ developers programme to include the Java and Windows Mobile developer communities, following the launch of the scheme for the Symbian 60 platform last October. The programme aims to help developers create applications for the Samsung Applications Store, which was launched in beta mode last month.
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