Day 1 at Barcelona and Nokia launch 4 new handsets that hardly set the world alight.  The leaked N96 ticks most of the right boxes and competes with the latest iPhone with 16GB of internal memory.  The other handsets too have solid specifications all with good cameras, GPS and Symbian OS.

But with release dates in H2, the N96 especially looks distinctly underpowered against the anticipated 3G iPhone (possible launch May?).  If Nokia don’t pull something better out of their hat later this week, the Apple tortoise will overtake the Nokia hare by the critical Christmas season.

So day minus 1 at Barcelona (Sunday to you and I) and Sony Ericsson have announced a cluster of handsets. 

Though there is no direct replacement for the P990i/P1i, yet, there are two decent mid-range Symbian handsets aimed at the mid market.  This at least reaffirms their commitment to UIQ and offers smartphones to a wider audience.

The intrigue comes with the new XPERIA range.  The X1 is an extremely good looking handset with top end touch screen, connectivity and keyboard.  But why base it on the Microsoft OS?  Does this mean UIQ development has stalled for high end mobiles?

BT has great ideas but seemingly don’t do their market research before launching some of them; and when they do have a disaster they try very hard to have another one.

In 1999 BT’s Onephone launched, based on an Ericsson GSM/DECT design, providing one phone for home and away.  It failed disastrously leaving some distributors with unsaleable bricks.

Having woefully overestimated the market once, BT gave the concept another shot with Bluephone / Fusion based on UMA technology.  Although more popular, BT are closing the service so expect loads of new Nokia, Motorola and Samsung handsets going cheap on eBay.