The British Retail Consortium and Google have launched a joint 'Online Retail Monitor' to provide insights into online shopping trends.

It reveals that the total volume of online retail-related searches in the UK grew by 29% in the first quarter of 2011 compared with the same quarter a year earlier. However, mobile retail search traffic rose by 181% over the same period. Overall, 11% of total retail searches in the first quarter of 2011 were made on a mobile device.

Sony Corporation has announced plans to introduce two Android-powered tablet devices from this autumn.

Both devices just have codenames at the moment; the Sony Tablet S1 has a 9.4-inch display, while the Sony Tablet S2 has two folding 5.5-inch displays.

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s Easter, but that’s not stopped the mobile phone industry from generating plenty of news stories.

Let’s start with partnerships. Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom - which already work together as Everything Everywhere in the UK – have now agreed to combine their procurement activities for customer equipment, network equipment, service platforms and IT infrastructure. Yes, even these two telecoms giants can save money with group buying!

No great surprise here.

Earlier this week we reported that Apple was taking legal action against Samsung. Now we hear that Samsung is taking legal action against Apple. It's filed cases in Korea, Japan and Germany.

Mark Bridge writes:

In July last year I wrote about the 'geek porn' of unboxing being taken to a new level with celebrity unboxing (which sounds rather like a challenge from a reality TV show).

Sony Ericsson had persuaded Maria Sharapova to give her first impressions of the X10 Mini Pro. The end result was entertaining, if not insightful.

And now Samsung have added a new facet to the trend with 'extreme unboxing'.