Apple teased the masses ahead of the launch of its newest handset – with the only detail being divulged being the title of the event: “Let’s Talk iPhone”. As with most Apple launches, the technology press and blogger community were fast spreading rumours about what new features the device would have. Would it be called the iPhone 5? And what would it look like? On Tuesday the Cupertino-based company unveiled the iPhone 4S – an upgrade to the iPhone 4, with a new chip and enhanced voice recognition features but largely the same appearance as its predecessor.

The hype and excitement generated by the advent of digital advertising a decade ago led to widespread speculation on the death of traditional media. But were those predictions very much exaggerated or just premature?

Chinese manufacturer ZTE is best known for a disruptive presence in the network infrastructure space. The firm also makes handsets on a white label basis selling them to operators which will rebrand them as their own. In this capacity, it’s pretty much unheard of, especially outside of the industry. Yet all that is set to change.

Indian carrier Reliance Communications launched 3G services in some of the country’s biggest urban centres at the end of 2010. The company aims to launch in all 13 circles where it holds 3G licences by the end of 2011. But with rural India experiencing strong growth, Reliance is also focusing on the harder to reach markets with customised products. Here, Mr R. Swaminathan, senior vice president at Reliance, updates us on this task.

As voice becomes commoditised, carriers are looking for new services, not replacement ones, says Broadsoft CTO Scott Hoffpauir. And voice over LTE (VoLTE) will be the game-changer in a fragmenting market, allowing carriers to utilise an all-IP environment to roll out new and compelling services alongside voice.

Earlier this week the seventh annual LTE World Summit 2011 took place at the RAI, Amsterdam on the 17th-18th May 2011. The event proved a great success, attracting over 1,750 attendees, with speakers representing more than 160 operators from more than 110 different countries. Like LTE itself, this was a truly global event.

The boom in popularity of tablets represents an opportunity for carriers to trawl back some ground in the enterprise markets, according to John Giere, SVP at Openwave. Giere told Telecoms.com that the tablet market is shaking up the enterprise space far more than it will the consumer one – at least in the US.