CNET reports the waiting period for an iPhone 4 is around three weeks, while that of the HTC Incredible is around a month.

With the launch of Motorola’s Droid X just around the corner, it promises to be a blockbuster summer for smartphone manufacturers.

A rare, bright spot of news in the midst of uncertainties surrounding the recovery.

“Smartphones are what people want,” said Roger Entner, a senior vice president at Nielsen. “And they want the best and the hottest devices. That’s creating a lot more demand in the market.”

First-quarter sales of smartphones worldwide jumped 48.7 percent compared to a year earlier, according to market research firm Gartner. Highly subsidized price tags are attracting customers as well as a growing portfolio of new devices.

According to Telnic, the company that runs the .tel registry, businesses and individuals can manage all their contact information through their .tel domain – sort of a unified communication hub.

And boy, at just $300 for the first three years, isn’t it a steal?

What’s next – .con?

“.tel is your place on the internet, which will act like a switchboard.” said Kash Mahdavi, the chief executive of Telnic, the London-based company that runs the .tel registry. “You can say, ‘Here are my Facebook details, here is my mobile number, and people will always be able to find you’.”

The number of people requesting Olympic content over their phones is still relatively small — but NBC executives say they’re stunned at how many of those never used the phones for this purpose before.

NBC Universal has been using the Olympics as something of a research lab to track the adoption of new media technology.

“To some extent, the Olympics are beginning to influence how people use new technology,” said Alan Wurtzel, research president for NBC Universal.

Though the iPhone has brought down its pricing a bit, it’s still a niche phone – the mass market part of the game will be driven by traditional handset manufacturers, who have now scented a massive opportunity – and who would be soon flooding the market with handsets that offer similar browsing capabilities and features, which should spur the beginning of mainstream adoption and usage of mobile websites.

One thing’s for sure, the iPhone has been a catalyst unlike any other – it has demonstrated to all the naysayers that not only is browsing on mobile very much possible but it’s actually engaging. In all fairness, the naysayers were not far from the truth – to put it mildly, the experience was rather frustrating, if not downright torture. Now if only carriers would take the lead and do something about factoring data as a standard part of all tariff plans.

Competition to establish standards is vital in any market but if allowed to drag too long without any clear winners, arrests innovation and development. Focused on self promotion and protecting turfs, players lose focus and severely restrict application development and adoption to niches – leading to a proliferation of small, regional players but hardly any mass players.

We could take a leaf out of the recently concluded DVD standard wars between Blu-ray and HD DVD – with the vote going in favor of Blu-ray, consumer electronics firms and content providers can focus on core strengths, instead of waiting by the sidelines to see which format will come out on top or trying to develop players and content for both the formats.

To an extent, it does not really matter which standard is adopted – each standard comes with its own set of advantages and issues. The industry or key players (and if necessary, governments) need to come together and throw its weight behind adoption of single or at best dual standards.

Once frozen, a standard can be the base for all efforts to evolve a core ecosystem – establish concrete business models, institute payment protocols and speed up application development, leading to mass adoption – which in turn will push down price points and further drive innovation en masse.

A monopoly in standards would not be all that bad, especially if it’s controlled by a consortium of players from across the mobile world representing all key interests. The ideas are out there but they can evolve and scale only if standards are in place. It’s inevitable standards will emerge, with or without the support of the industry - the only question that remains is, will the boost come from within or outside the industry, and when.

The government is worried about how elementary and junior high school students are getting sucked into cyberspace crimes, spending long hours exchanging mobile e-mail and suffering other negative effects of cell phone overuse, Masaharu Kuba, a government official overseeing the initiative, said.

“Japanese parents are giving cell phones to their children without giving it enough thought,” he said.

Comcast agreed to acquire online address book service Plaxo on May 14, for an undisclosed sum. On May 16, U.K.-based carrier Vodafone spent $49 million on its first mobile Internet purchase: Zyb, a private Danish company, which, like Plaxo, helps users manage their contacts with social networking features.

Both Comcast and Vodafone plan to use their acquisitions to help people share information with contacts listed in their cellphone’s address book.

“Today, with our new price plans, Vodafone customers have the confidence to browse for as long as they need, with no extra costs when checking their email, visiting their favourite social-networking sites or making a final bid on eBay,” said Vodafone’s director of consumer products, Ian Shepherd.

You can call or instant message any of your contacts who are using Skype on their computer or mobile device. In this beta version, anyone can receive calls, instant message and see who’s online. If you want to call phones, mobiles, or any of your Skype contacts, this is limited to people in Brazil, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Sweden and UK.

On one hand, the devices allow adults to maintain contact with their kids, helping to supervise their activities from afar. On the flip side, advanced features on some phones let kids check email, send instant messages, and visit mobile versions of Web sites. And that’s where teens can get into trouble.

As mobile Web browsing becomes more common, it will just be another aspect of cellphones that parents need to understand and be informed of, experts say. Monitoring your children’s cellphone comes with risks, especially when dealing with teenagers. Communication is essential. Minors should understand why their parents are monitoring them. If not, experts say parents risk alienating and losing the trust of their children.