Focus on smartphone, tablet screen sizes at show

At straightway week's Internationale Funkaustellung in Berlin, smartphone makers are expected to push the boundaries of the device's screen sizes, during also launching tablets and trying to accelerate the momentum for 3D-capable products.

Samsung's press conference, scheduled for Thursday, is one of the most anticipated, and not just because of its legal fight with Apple, for which one front is in Germany.

At last year's IFA, Samsung premiered its Galaxy Tab family and this year, the company has promised in teaser ads that, "something big is coming" -- something that looks like a small tablet or a big smartphone, or one of each. The actual products are hidden by a shining light.

Wave is Samsung's name for products based on Bada, its smartphone OS, and looking at Samsung's past naming nomenclature for tablets, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 will be an upgraded version of its first 7-inch tablet. The Korean company will not be the only one showing new tablets at IFA. Sony is expected to show two upcoming Android-based tablets, so far known by the code names S1 and S2. ViewSonic jumped the gun on the show and launched the Android-based ViewPad 7x, which as well has a 7-inch screen.

The odd duck in the list of expected Samsung products is Galaxy Note, which could be a rumored smartphone with a 4.7-inch display that would go so then with the "something big is coming" tagline. As well, Sony Ericsson's first dual-core smartphone is rumored to have a 4.5-inch display.

Still, most tablet sales are expected to involve 9-inch or larger screen sizes, according to Blaber. On the smartphone side, vendors are helped by hardware developments that make it possible to manufacture devices where the screen comes right to the edge of the device. So a smartphone with a 4.5-inch screen can now be physically smaller than was possible 12 to 18 months ago, he said.

The timing of IFA is as well close to the expected launches of Android Ice Cream Sandwich and Windows Phone 7.5, as well known as Mango. HTC is organizing events in a number of European cities, including Berlin, on Thursday, where the company looks set to launch its first smartphone based on Microsoft's struggling smartphone OS. If visitors are lucky they should as well be able to catch a glimpse of Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

Handful of vendors launch smartphones with 3D screens

This year has as well seen a handful of vendors launch smartphones with 3D screens. Whether that trend will continue at IFA remains to be seen. Nevertheless, in general, 3D looks set to continue to make waves. The research has already made its way to laptops, game consoles and TVs, so now it will be more about making products better and cheaper.

Besides consumer electronics makers, operators like Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom will as well make their way to Berlin. Deutsche Telekom will show new smartphones and tablets, which will as well be offered outside Germany, a spokeswoman said via e-mail.

Germany is a leader in Europe when it comes to rolling out LTE (Long Term Evolution, latest standard in the mobile network technology), so hopefully the operators will launch tablets and smartphones for European spectrum bands. So far, European users have had to settle with modems when accessing LTE (Long Term Evolution, latest standard in the mobile network technology) networks.