Today’s mobile news roundup features: an extended Apple-Samsung war for consumers; AT&T claiming iPhone 5 demand is higher than previous model; Samsung to release Galaxy SIV in March 2013; and RIM snubbed by Yahoo!.

Apple-Samsung war fueled by ad

Samsung fueled their war with Apple when news got out that they’ll be putting up a new ad for the Galaxy SIII on newspapers that compares the iPhone 5 and the SIII.  The ad has this big header reading “It doesn’t take a genius,” and below, a comparison of the features of the devices.

Of course, Samsung’s side was loaded with cool features that the iPhone 5 lacks.  But this didn’t go well with Apple fanboys as they made their own parodies of the ad stating all the SIII features are either already on the iPhone but used differently, or it’s not on the iPhone because the feature is useless.  It started with one user being pissed at the ad and made corrections and comments on the ad and calling Samsung a bully, then another reader doing research on the ad and added more to Apple’s features. You be the judge, let us know what you think in the comments below.

AT&T claims iPhone 5 selling faster than old iPhone

A report from Bloomberg states that AT&T claims that consumers are pre-ordering the iPhone 5 faster compared to past iPhones sold.  Though AT&T hasn’t released numbers yet, if what they claim is true, we could be looking at more than 200,000 iPhone 5 pre-ordered just during the weekend.  iPhone 5 pre-ordered online would be available for shipping by October 5.

Galaxy SIV to be released in March 2013

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy SIII back in May, a few months before the iPhone 5 was launched.  They had a good head start, but it seems people are still more interested in the iPhone 5.  So they’re just going to release their next big thing, by March 2013.  According to reports, Samsung will be unveiling the Galaxy S IV during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2013, ready to be shipped by March.  Also, it looks like the next Galaxy smartphone could be moving to the phablet category, as it is rumored to have a 5-inch display.

“Samsung wants to keep its one-year product schedule and the Galaxy S4 will be the first to match that strategy” a local Samsung partner apparently told the Korean paper. “The S4 will see some external changes but retain its popular rectangular shape with rounded corner concept.”

RIM snubbed by Yahoo!

Yahoo!’s new CEO, Marissa Mayer, announced a new program, “Yahoo! Smart Phones, Smart Fun!” that would allow their employees to get a new smartphone to their liking, such as the newly released iPhone 5, or choose from the range of Android smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy SIII, HTC One X, HTC EVO 4G LTE, or even the Nokia Lumia 920, which is a Windows Phone 8 smartphone.

The program aims to replace RIM’s BlackBerry as their corporate smartphone across 22 countries where they have offices.  Aside from getting a free smartphone of their choice, employees will also be getting free data plans.

This is great news for Yahoo employees, boosting morale.  Unfortunately, this is really bad for RIM.  Being snubbed for a Windows Phone 8 device means that Mayer has more confidence in the Windows Phone 8 devices, which is relatively young compared to BlackBerry.  It seems like even Yahoo, an ailing company, sees no future in betting on BlackBerry devices for company use.