Apple has just been granted a patent which may have far reaching ramifications on the smartphone or mobile devices segment. For the users it means, Apple may monopolise the smartphone and tablet market.

The patent is about touchscreen functionality on portable devices, which says: “A computer-implemented method, for use in conjunction with a portable multifunction device with a touch screen display, comprises displaying a portion of page content, including a frame displaying a portion of frame content and also including other content of the page, on the touch screen display.”

From outside, it looks like a big win for the company and equally big loss for the rival smartphone and tablet manufacturers. Some analysts believe Apple would now be able to arm twist its competitors as it has been granted the patent over finger movement technology used by other mobile device manufacturers as well.

Most of the patent applications, even if granted do not get so much attention, but since the Apple products such as iPhone and iPad have become such a big hit, and every other company in the space is trying to replicate the success of Apple, the patents may go on to have a huge impact on the mobile devices market.

Some of the most basic activities done by the users on a smartphone are covered in the patent, including the ‘touch’ function.

The patent begins by talking about moving web pages, but later talks about spreadsheets, word processing documents, presentation and even emails.

Last but not the least, since there are so many lawsuits in which Apple is already embroiled, it should not come as a surprise if Apple decides to use this patent to its advantage. The patent grant is still open to interpretation, and how things will pan out is remain to be seen.

Salora International, a leading player in Indian consumer electronics industry, is foraying into the mobile handset market with the launch of its SM501 and SM401 models.

Salora plans to launch the mobile phones in the markets of eastern India, Delhi-NCR, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.

SM501 will cost Rs 2,999 while SM401 will cost Rs 2,499.

While SM501 comes in black and red colours, SM401 have soothing colors of light green and blue. Apart from support for Hindi and English, both phones allow users to operate in regional languages, like Bengali.

Targeted at multimedia lovers, SM501 comes with touch screen facility, which can be used either with fingers or stylus. The handset comes with a 3.5mm adaptor that fit regular earphones, headphones and portable speakers.

Both the models have the design of a bar phone and come with an easily manageable dual SIM feature that allows users to operate two SIM cards in one phone flexibly. They allow easy access to either card, so that the user can access two separate phone numbers and make calls under the most optimal calling plan.

The 1.3 MP camera with flash and zoom facility helps users to click pictures better in lower light and share with friends right away.

Speaking on the occasion of launch Gopal Jiwarajka, managing director, Salora said, “These ranges of mobile phones will give users a complete multimedia experience like never before. Its audio technology has LED to an incredible sound performance with high quality K class amplifier.”

Spice Mi 270 is the latest Android phone available in the market and it’s also the cheapest priced at Rs 5700, it is also the first Android phone to support Dual SIM slot (dual standby, single talking).

The specification of the include a 2.8 inch resistive touch screen with 240 x 320 Pixels resolution, a 2 mega Pixel camera, extendable memory up to 16 GB. While the phone includes WiFi and Bluetooth, it only comes with EDGE network (No 3G).

GPS support is provided, the battery is a 1000 mAh one with claimed talk time of 3 hour and 320 hour standby, given that the phone comes with a 600 MHz Processor and smaller screen this is very feasible.

While the device is no powerhouse, at this price it is definitely a value for money preposition. We will talk about build quality and user experience when we get to lay our hands on the device sometime this week.

Huawei, which recently announced its Ideos series of smartphones and tablets in India, and claimed that India is one of the most important markets for it, has no plans to launch one of the best devices in its portfolio&#151the Huawei Glory&#151here.

A Huawei spokesperson said to ‘The Mobile Indian’, “We will be launching Huawei Glory in USA by November, but this device is not meant for the Indian market.”

Glory runs on a 1.4 GHz MSM8655T Snapdragon dual core Processor with Adreno 205 GPU (for graphics). It supports dual mode (GSM/CDMA) for world roaming, has a 4 inch 854 x 480 pixel TFT display, and an 8 megapixel AF camera with LED flash.

The phone will feature a beefy 1900 mAh battery, EV-DO Rev A technology (a CDMA technology that gives speeds of up to 3.2 Mbps), WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and 2 GB of storage with expandable memory. There is no HDMI slot but Huawei says that it will include a “surprising” multimedia solution that compensates for the lack of HDMI.

The phone will ship in November with Android 2.3 Gingerbread (followed by an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich OS), and is expected to retail for approximately $300 in the USA, which is barely Rs 14,000 &#151 a mouth watering price for a phone with these specs.

Tech magazines that had the opportunity to use the device have rated it highly in terms of performance and build quality.

It is sad that a company that claims to give priority to India is not bringing its best product to the Indian market. Although the device launched in the USA will use CDMA networks, it is not hard for the company to bring a GSM device to India since the Glory’s processor supports GSM as well. And even a CDMA Glory would be successful in India because it is a powerful device at an attractive price.

Research In Motion (RIM) has accidentally revealed its three new smartphone models – BlackBerry 9360 (Curve), 9810 (Torch 2) and 9850 (Torch Monaco).

The information about the models was posted by RIM in its blog post where it provided details about BlackBerry OS 7 screen resolutions, and about new simulators for platform developers.

Notably, RIM had announced BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 handsets, featuring touchscreens and BlackBerry OS 7 last month at BlackBerry World 2011.

BlackBerry Curve 9360, codenamed Apollo, is to feature a 2.44 inch screen with 480 x 360 pixel resolution. It will have an 800 MHz Tavor MG-1 processor, 512 MB of RAM and 512 MB eMMC storage space. With a thickness of 11 mm, this touchscreen handset will also feature WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, and Near Field Communication chip.

Second is the BlackBerry Torch 2 9810, which would be a faster version of the Torch handset with a 1.2 GHz processor and 768 MB of RAM.

Featuring a 3.2 inch display, the smartphone will have 8 GB of onboard storage and an 8 Megapixel camera. Like the others, this handset too will have WiFi, Bluetooth and an NFC chip.

However, there is scarce information about the new BlackBerry Torch 9850 model, which is expected to have a 3.7 inch screen.

The hardware details and the touch interface for BlackBerry handsets might entice you to lay your hands on one, but there are no details on when these new handsets will be released.