HTC says it’ll sell over a million Touch Diamonds by the middle of this month…iPhone, who?

Even though Apple sold a million iPhone 3Gs in just 3 days, HTC says its still gonna celebrate. Launched in June, the Touch Diamond is HTC’s latest touch-based smartphone, and an HTC representative told PC World that the Touch Diamond is HTC’s fastest selling handset ever. So far the Windows Mobile-based 3G handset is available from over 50 operators in 30 countries but has not yet launched in the U.S. or Japan.

Along with celebrating its one millionth, HTC said it hopes to double its pleasure by the end of the year, shipping 2 million Touch Diamonds in the next five months.

Photos have appeared of Motorola’s latest entry-level handset the VE240, rumors are its slated for release from no contract carriers MetroPCS and Cricket. Based on the photos (thanks Phonearena), we’re guessing the VE240 is a low-end, music-centered, candybar style handset. No news on the release date yet. But we’re guessing this isn’t part of the company’s anticipated “impressive” new handsets portfolio.

More from ABI Research, following Dior’s recently introduced line of mobile phones, the firm predicts more high-end fashion houses are looking to mobile phones as the latest design frontier. ABI says mobile phones “take on a powerful symbolism” for brands as “personal items used frequently in public,” and representations of a user’s “social status and personality.”

ABI predicts revenues from luxury branded handsets will exceed $11 billion next year, increasing to more than $43 billion in 2013.

Research director Kevin Burden said,

“For luxury goods producers, mobile phones are a logical addition to their basic product portfolios of jewelry, watches, and other fashion accessories. From the perspective of handset manufacturers, a luxury mobile phone does not simply mean a new handset model, it represents a meaningful strategic approach to increased brand equity.”

Given the competitive environment in the handset market, ABI says that mobile phone manufacturers are recognizing the power luxury designers have long understood, the power of branding.

For more on the report, see ABI Research.

According to the latest report from ABI Research, Linux is set to be top dog in the mobile OS wars by 2013. The research firm predicts that Linux, led by Moblin, LiMo and Maemo, will be the OS for more than 50 million mobile Internet devices (MIDs) in five years.

ABI calls the MID market the “first real example of a greenfield situation” in that its believes all mobile OSs will start on “equal footing.” And the report expects mobile Linux to reign supreme due to its “flexibility, customization and very positive cost comparison to Windows Mobile.”

As LiMo is the only group that has included smartphones in its mobile Linux project, ABI says it is well positioned in that its platform can “span multiple device segments.”

Another study by research firm Forward Concepts
also predicts that Linux will rule the MIDs market, predicting that MID shipments will grow from 305,000 units in 2008 to 39.6 million units in 2012.

According to a report in Reuters, Nokia has cut prices on many of its handsets worldwide, by as much as 10%. The largest cuts are on the Nokia 5310 and Nokia 5610 music phones and the 8GB Nokia N81. As the handset market faces increasing pressure from slowing economies in the U.S and Europe, Nokia’s price cuts are seen as a move to put pressure on its smaller rivals such as Sony Ericsson and Samsung.

Nokia increased its already substantial lead over other phone makers during the second quarter, from 40% to 41% according to Strategy Analytics and CCS Insight.

While Nokia refrained from commenting on the price cut report, David Hallden, an analysts at Cheuvreux, told Reuters the move was a ‘Crazy Ivan’ and said: “This is basically a way to run away from competition. You’re putting a lot of pressure on your less competitive peers.”

The World Wide Web consortium or W3C announced new standards that it hopes will make mobile Web browsing easier. Published as a W3C recommendation, the groups says it Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 “condenses the experience of many mobile Web stakeholders into practical advice on creating mobile-friendly content.”

Dominique Hazaël-Massieux, leader of the W3C Mobile Web Activity program, said in a statement: “In support of the W3C mission of building One Web, we want to support the developer community by providing tools to enable a great mobile Web user experience.”

The groups says that it hopes its recommendations will help mobile content developers deal with the challenges of designing Web content for a variety of mobile devices, not just the iPhone or Android-based handsets. Along with its recommendations, the W3C released a mobile Web code checker that allows developers to test mobile-friendly Web code.

Motorola announced plans for another reorg, this time in its home and networks mobility unit. The division is the company’s second largest business unit after its flailing mobile phone unit. It supplies carriers and cable companies with networking equipment and currently is organized into product units including cable set-top boxes, modems, cable infrastructure and networking gear.

Reports say the reorganization will divide these businesses into three units: one for cable set-top boxes and digital video equipment, Internet-based video and modems; and then the company’s networks business will be divided in two units: one for traditional wireless equipment for carriers, and another focusing on next-generation technologies including WiMax and LTE.

For the rest of the scoop, see CG.

Verizon reported another strong quarter, with little thanks to the few remaining landline customers. Verizon Communications, the 51% parent to Verizon Wireless, says its second quarter earnings were up 12%, reaching $1.88 billion, or 66 cents per share, from $1.68 billion, or 58 cents per share a year ago, even as more landline customers disconnected service. The company reported an 11.4% percent decline in residential landline customers, up from the 10.9% slide in the first quarter.

Read the rest of the quarterly highlights at CG.

Clickz is reporting today that Mike Baker is scheduled to leave Nokia on August 8. Baker became head of Nokia Interactive Advertising after the company bought Enpocket last year. His expertise is sure to be missed.

Baker joined mobile advertising firm Enpocket in 2004 and help build the company after its formation in 2001. Enpocket was acquired by Nokia last year. Since then, he has been instrumental in expanding the Nokia Media Network. He will be replaced by Tom Henricksson, a longtime Nokia executive. Baker is upbeat about Henricksson.

“From Nokia’s perspective, Tom’s a great guy to head the business at this stage. The objectives are no longer to prove out of market, but now scale of business, achieve operational excellence, and systems required for a more mature market,” Baker said.

The Arena Football League (AFL) has chosen NewTek’s TriCaster technology to produce and web stream this year’s Virgin Mobile ArenaBowl XXII coverage. The event takes place in New Orleans on July 24-27. If you are an AFL fan but don’t like jazz or already have a closet full of beads, you can experience 11 events from seven locations via ArenaFootball.com and ArenaBowl.com. Coverage includes the following:

• LIVE from ArenaBowl XXII Weekend Daily Reports
• ArenaBowl XXII Kids Zone Concert featuring Jordan Pruitt
• Virgin Mobile ArenaBowl XXII Pre-Game Show on SIRIUS
• Virgin Mobile ArenaBowl XXII Post-Game Press Conference
• This Week in the AFL on SIRIUS
• Daily American and National Conference Reports
• The Wolfe’s Den presented by Miller Lite

If baseball is too slow for you and you need to take the edge off before 100 yard football season starts, be sure to follow this year’s Virgin Mobile ArenaBowl XXII weekend in all its detail.