Acer - currently claiming the world no.2 spot for PC and notebook sales - has revealed new tablet devices and a new smartphone this week.

The Acer ICONIA SMART promises a 4.8-inch 1024x480 widescreen and an 8-megapixel camera. The device will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread on a Qualcomm 1GHz processor. UK availability is expected from May 2011.

MobiWire - formerly known as Sagem Wireless - has unveiled a portfolio of secure business phones with embedded security for voice, SMS, data and on-device encryption. There's a feature phone with a proprietary OS and an Android-powered smartphone as well. The devices have been co-developed with secure communications specialists ERCOM following a partnership announced last year.

Control of the phone's security is managed by a company IT department, not by the user. The built-in security cannot be removed from the device or tampered with.

Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, has asked twenty one EU countries to urgently introduce all the necessary legal measures to allow the pan-EU deployment of mobile satellite services. Potential uses for these services include high-speed internet, mobile television and emergency communications.

The European Parliament and the EU's Council of Ministers agreed around three years ago that Mobile Satellite Services should be deployed in all EU Member States by May 2011.

The world's mobile operator community generated $965 billion in annualised service revenues last year, according to the latest research from Informa Telecoms & Media.

This annualised figure is expected to rise and exceed $1 trillion during 2011, before growing to $1.14 trillion by the end of 2015.

Samsung Electronics has announced the bada 2.0 smartphone platform, which includes support for Near Field Communication, web applications, multitasking and voice recognition. There’s also an improved Software Development Kit for developers.

The news comes a year after bada was launched at Mobile World Congress 2010.