HTC scored no points with Nokia today as it announced its new smartphones, the Desire HD and Desire HD Z, at a press conference in London that conflicted with Nokia’s annual conference taking place in the same city.

At a press event in London, HTC unveiled what are essentially the European versions of the HTC Evo 4G. The Desire HD features most of the same features as the Evo, and the Desire Z features a pop hinge that opens to reveal a qwerty keyboard.

The Desire HD features a 4.3-inch LCD display, 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 720p HD video recording, 8-megapixel camera with dual-flash and the same unibody heritage of the HTC Legend, which is sculpted from a block of solid aluminum. It also includes the new HTC Fast Boot, which is supposed to shorten the time taken to complete the power-up sequence.

HTC Desire Z includes a few downgrades from the Desire HD. The Z features 720p HD video recording, a 5-megapixel camera with automatic flash, an 800MHz Qualcomm 7230 processor and HTC Fast Boot.

The Desire HD and Desire Z will be broadly available through mobile operators and retailers across major European and Asian markets in October, with the HTC Desire Z shipping in North America later this year.

While HTC was showing off the Desire devices, Nokia was apparently fuming. According to reports from Tech Crunch, Nokia was bothered enough by HTC’s conflicting press event, which HTC scheduled just weeks before the kick-off of Nokia World, that it sent people carrying red balloons to stand outside the entrance of HTC’s event. The balloons bore the message, “I know where I’m going with Nokia’s Ovi Maps.”

To add even more venom to the statement, Nokia handed out HTC press event “survival kits,” to those who were leaving Nokia World to attend the HTC event. The kits included such items as ear plugs and an eye mask, “in case you feel snoozy.” The Nokia survival kits included a message that noted HTC stands for “Ham, Tomato & Cheese (not the most exciting) sandwich.”

When reached for comment, a Nokia spokesman pointed to a tweet posted on Nokia’s corporate Twitter account, which read: “HTC drives buses up to our front door to hijack #nokiaworld – so we give out red balloons plus lunch…and u call us “dirty”!? LOL!”

Indeed, more than one outlet reported that HTC sent transportation to the Nokia World event to draw reporters to its event. It’s worth noting that Nokia’s event was scheduled a year ahead of time, and HTC scheduled its event only weeks ago.

HTC could not be reached for comment on the matter before press time.

Samsung Electronics announced its plan to demonstrate 4th Generation (4G) mobile technology at the annual Samsung 4G Forum in Jeju Island, Korea for the first time in the world. Demonstration will take place at the specially designed bus in mobile circumstances reaching 100 Mbps data transmission as well as at the display area inside forum venue to show speeds of 1Gbps of data transmission.

The bus demonstration will give participants a first-hand experience of this latest technology. A demonstration bus will be moving at speeds of 60 km/h to show multi-cell Handover with data speed of 100Mbps. A live broadcast of the Forum, VOD, and internet access will be shown simultaneously in a demonstration bus allowing delegates to experience the stability and speed of 4G connectivity of 100Mbps data speed.

(Handover: the process of transferring an ongoing call or data session from one channel connected to the core network to another)

1 Gbps data speed under nomadic circumstances is 50 times faster than current Mobile WiMAX technology. It takes about 2.4 seconds to transfer 100 MP3 files (300MByte), 5.6 seconds to transfer 1 Movie (800MByte) at speeds of 1Gpbs. Samsung will demonstrate 1Gpbs data speed at nomadic circumstances by showing 32HD channel broadcast (20 Mpbs) download, Internet access and video telephony all at the same time. Furthermore, a 3.5 Gbps data transfer demonstration will be shown using 8X8 MIMO (Multi-Input Multi-Output) technology.

Samsung’s 4G technology demonstration is a next generation wireless communication service, a step up from last year’s Mobile WiMAX demonstration. Samsung has recently announced its plans to provide Mobile WiMAX systems and handsets to Sprint Nextel and lead the industry in next generation telecommunications technology. Additionally, Samsung has plans to commercialize Mobile WiMAX with nine major operators in seven different countries such as US, Italy, Brazil.

Ki Tae Lee, president of Samsung’s Telecommunications Network Business, says, “We are proud to demonstrate 4G technology for the first time at Samsung 4G Forum. We hope to drive development and standardization of 4G mobile technology with the successful demonstration and realize our dream to begin the 4G era.” He adds, “We hope to work with associated parties for the successful commercialization of 4G technology.”

Samsung hosts an annual 4G Forum to discuss about technology development and standardization of future telecommunication technology. Around 175 high-profile industry representatives from 20 countries meet to discuss the key technologies for 4th generation mobile communications at the 4th Annual Samsung 4G Forum from August 30th to September 1st covering the “Service Requirements & Spectrum for 4G”.

ITU defines 4G technology as a future wireless telecommunications technology allowing data transfer rates of 1Gbps at nomadic circumstances and 100Mbps at mobile circumstances. The spectrums for 4G technology will be decided at WRC (World Radiocommunication Conference) in October of 2007. The 4G mobile communications format is expected to become commercially available around 2010.

Motorola leverages vast wireless expertise to enable advanced silicon innovation that helps ensure its leadership in cutting-edge WiMAX handsets

Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) today announced a strategic initiative to develop mobile WiMAX chipsets for use in Motorola’s next-generation WiMAX devices. This investment in chipset design demonstrates Motorola’s on-going commitment to WiMAX and expands the company’s role as a leader in end-to-end WiMAX solutions beyond infrastructure and handsets to the core implementation of WiMAX in chipsets.

“It should come as no surprise to anyone that Motorola is, and intends to remain, a leader in WiMAX — including the design of silicon chipsets for mobile devices. For some time now Motorola has been investing in the development and deployment of WiMAX — from infrastructure to advanced silicon,” said Ron Garriques, president of Motorola’s Mobile Devices Business. “In our vision of seamless mobility, WiMAX will help transform the mobile communications experience for everyone. Enhanced speed for data, as well as cost efficiencies and network optimization for wireless operators are just some of the benefits that are fueling excitement and accelerated adoption of WiMAX across the industry.”

Motorola’s initial chipset will focus on core 802.16e mobile WiMAX functionality supporting voice, video, and data for low power mobile applications in handsets and modules. These first chipsets are scheduled to support commercial Motorola WiMAX devices in 2008 for carriers in North America, Japan and around the world including Sprint and others. Motorola is working with its silicon vendors on the overall fabrication of the new chipsets.

“Sprint Nextel’s ability to offer customers a nationwide mobile data network depends in part on broad availability of mobile WiMAX-enabled chipsets for advanced wireless broadband services,” said Atish Gude, senior vice president, Corporate Strategy, Sprint Nextel. “WiMAX innovators like Motorola will help speed the adoption of wireless mobility products and services as we meet the growing access and mobile Internet needs of customers, when and where they want.”