His remit will be to develop new channel relationships for the handset manufacturer.

Hicks moves up from his post in LG as senior manager for 3 partnership. He formerly worked at Unique Distribution and VK Mobile which filed for bankruptcy earlier this month. He joined LG late last year.

The handset which is designed for and by women includes a compact mirror and a Flash animation guide to make-up application.

BenQ Mobile has teamed up with make-up brand Pout to launch the EF61 Mia Special Edition clamshell phone.

Scrolling text accompanies the five-step animation guide and links users to Pout products suited for each step.

BenQ Mobile UK head of marketing Louise Forbes said: The Poppy was a groundbreaking phone that set the pace in terms of designing for women. The EF61 Mia Special Edition is the next result of our approach.?

It comes packaged in a gift box with a boutique-style gift bag a satin phone pouch in a petal design a powder-blue stereo headset and data cable plus a leather charm accessory. It has a 1.3 megapixel camera and 64MB memory card.

The phone will be available to dealers from September 2006 at 99.99 on pre-pay. More Pout-linked products are expected to follow.

Carphone Warehouse CEO Charles Dunstone said: We need to make sure we understand our customers and the way they live their lives which is changing and evolving faster than ever.?

The study revealed that 26 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds considered their mobile more important than TV. It also showed that 55 per cent of under 25-year-old women used their mobile to deter the unwanted advances of men.

The survey also revealed that 41 per cent of mobile users think they are too much at the beck and call of their employer as a result of using their mobile at work.

The agreement gives Vodafone access to EMIs 200000-strong full-track digital music catalogue from artists such as Robbie Williams as well as realtones and ringback tones.

The news comes as O2 renewed its partnership with Sony BMG last week which will see a music video premiere by hip-hop act OutKast on O2 mobiles.

O2 users will be able to download bespoke versions of Morris Brown taken from the new album Idlewild before it is released on August 21.

O2 head of content marketing Grahame Riddell said: The decision to offer O2 customers the first view of OutKasts new music video demonstrates the power of the mobile community for artists.?

The black LG U400 music phone features an external click-scroll wheel and dedicated music keys on the exterior so music and media files can be accessed while the device is closed.

The LG U400 lets users download music over-the-air and play it back while performing other tasks. 3s music player is integrated so users can create playlists and search tracks by artist title and genre.

The handset which includes a two megapixel camera comes pre-loaded with DJ ringtones and video content and a ?scratch function so users can re-mix content themselves.

3 sales director Marc Allera said: Were second only to iTunes for digital music sales. Seventy-six per cent of all mobile music sales happen on 3 so were well-placed to exploit this growing market. The LG U400 will enhance our position further.?

The Sony Ericsson K800i features the Sony Cyber-shot brand and has a 3.2 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and auto-focus.

The K610i is an upgrade for the K608i model and is 20 per cent smaller than its predecessor at 17mm thick. It features a two mega-pixel camera Bluetooth stereo streaming and an external memory slot.

Both handsets feature the 3 Instant Viewer giving access to all 3s media services.

According to communications director Mark Squires the N73 has been shipping to all channels for a week and the N93 should be in all channels by this week.

The two phones are specialised digital imaging devices with high-spec components. The N73 includes a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics and a mechanical shutter. The movie recorder N93 also sports a 3.2 megapixel camera as well as a 3x zoom plus MPEG4 VGA video capture at up to 30 frames a second.

The two devices follow hot on the heels of Sony Ericssons high-profile K800i Cyber-shot. However Squires denies that the timing has anything to do with the rival handsets popularity.

We said we would ship the N73 in July and we are shipping in July? he said. We expect it to be a big seller and the channel seems to agree judging by the orders weve had.?

O2 said this week that it would not offer an O2-branded broadband service until January at the earliest.

O2 is in the process of integrating British broadband provider Be which it purchased in June for GBP50 million. But O2 said it would not bundle its new broadband service with mobile tariffs like rival networks Orange and Virgin Mobile until it is sure its broadband customer services are up to scratch.

An O2 spokesperson said: We are integrating Be at present and it is going very smoothly. But we won?t launch anything until we are happy with the customer service aspect. We won?t launch anything until early next year.

A survey of 761 mobile phone users aged 15 and over found that 49 per cent of mobile phone users didnt know what model they used. And a further nine per cent were unaware of the make.

The study conducted by Ipsos MORI suggested this could mean mobile operators were losing money. If they knew what phones their customers were using they would know what services they could try to sell to them.

The report also suggested mobile operators were not doing enough to track the make and model of users phones.

Korean manufacturer VK Mobile has filed for bankruptcy after it failed to repay debts of 1.78 billion won ( 1 million).
It?s the third time VK Mobile had failed to honour debts in just over a week according to reports.
VK chief executive officer Yi Cheol-Sang was quoted last week in The Korea Times apologising to ?customers banks subcontractors and employees?. He promised to ?get VK back on track?.
Korea Investment & Securities analyst Greg Roh said: ?The bankruptcy of VK shows how tough the global mobile phone market is for second-string makers both at home and abroad. Only a few cell phone vendors will eventually stay alive.
?Even if creditors clear away debts VK is not likely to be profitable in the face of challenges from global giants like Nokia and Motorola on top of Samsung and LG.?
VK reportedly borrowed 10 billion won from Korean network operator SK Telecom and raised a further 1.4 billion won by issuing new shares.
VK Mobile was founded in 1997 as a manufacturer of batteries for mobile phones. It started to make GSM and CDMA handsets in 2001. It won a licence to provide GSM handsets to the Chinese market in 2002 and won an export award from the Korean government in 2003.
In the UK VK supplied the VK207 handset to Vodafone in March 2004 with Unique Distribution as fulfilment partner. After poor sales it released a pink variant that sold better. Last year it backed the UK release of the pink VK530 with a hefty ad campaign.
VK reported losses of 64.9 billion won in 2005.

Virgin Mobile to sell clothing in own stores

Virgin Mobile is to open its first standalone phone store at the end of the month at Lakeside shopping centre Thurrock.
It plans two more standalone Virgin Mobile outlets by the end of the year with a ?significant wave of new store openings? scheduled for 2007.
Virgin Mobile is recruiting 20 new staff for the first three stores and said that hundreds of new jobs would be created as the roll-out gathers pace next year.
Newly appointed managing director Alan Gow who replaced Tom Alexander following the sale to cable operator NTL in April indicated they were likely to be large-format sites.
Gow also said that Virgin Mobile would look at any Link stores that O2 chooses to sell off if its takeover goes ahead.
?We?re not on a shopping spree though. You won?t see hundreds of stores overnight? he added.
Virgin Mobile will sell music artwork and clothing alongside mobile phones in an attempt to stand out from the competition.
?We started by selling phones in Virgin Megastores and our competitors said we?d never sell mobiles in record shops but how wrong they were? said Graeme Hutchinson trading director at Virgin Mobile. ?The stores will also provide an excellent opportunity for the roll-out of our unique ?quadruple play? offer.?

Sales slump hits TomTom share price

Poor sales of satellite navigation system TomTom have resulted in a decline in its share value.
Shares slumped five per cent last week after the company issued a sales warning after shortages of a particular component.
TomTom head of investor relations Taco Titulaer said: ?Sales of the new GO range have been constrained in the second quarter due to short-supply of a component. It takes time to supply products to shops and we expected our revenue for the second quarter to be slightly higher.?
The company admitted that sales revenue would be limited to about 190 million. But Titulaer said: ?Production levels are back up to speed again and in line with our planning.?
The company?s final second quarter results will be released next Tuesday (July 25).

Redstone has made a formal offer of £17.3 million for the group whose divisions are Symphony Telecom and Anglia Telecom Centres. The bid is subject to Symphony Telecom shareholder approval.
Anglia Telecom CEO Andrew Smith commented: "The Anglia Telecom Symphony and Redstone combination offers dealers a complete fixed-line data VoIP broadband and mobile product set."
He added: "Symphony and Anglia Telecom will benefit from additional funding with more products to sell and a massively increased customer base."
Symphony Group currently has an annual combined turnover of about £60 million. This will rise to £130 million. Redstone does not currently provide a mobile telecommunications offering.