July 21 - 7:55am EDT   LG on Monday revealed that it has sold about seven million touchscreen cellphones since the company first introduced a full touch device through the Prada Phone in early 2007. The company claims to have the "leadership" of the category and notes that two million of these are the KU990 Viewty cameraphone; the next most popular devices are the North America-focused Venus and Voyager at 1.6 million and 1.3 million examples each, according to the company. The remaining 2.1 million are split between the Vu as well as models that are largely only available in Europe or Korea. [full story]

March 28 - 9:05am EDT   Telus late yesterday became the first North American provider outside of Verizon to offer the LG Venus. Called the Touch Venus by the Canadian provider, the slider remains unique in its replacement of the traditional directional pad in favor of a small touchscreen: while the main display is view-only, the input allows context-sensitive controls that reduce the need for a large number of single-purpose buttons. The phone is also more media-capable than most LG models with a microSDHC slot that holds up to 8GB and a 2-megapixel camera. [full story]

December 11 - 2:20pm EST   Verizon on Tuesday afternoon help round off its 2007 phone releases with the LG Venus Pink. The device replaces the all-black design of the original with a sparkle-textured pink sliding keypad and side trim. This makes the device more conspicuous for fashion-conscious women than the already high-visibility phone, which relies on a unique split view with a touchscreen replacing the normal buttons and directional pad of a conventional slider phone. [full story]