Cash-strapped consumers have been slow to buy personal computers in the recession. But with the launch of Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) new Windows 7 operating system Thursday, PC makers are aiming to reverse that trend–and then some.

Companies are expecting that Windows 7’s improved features over earlier Microsoft operating systems, including Vista and XP, will lure more consumers into stores. And they are betting that heightened demand will allow them to stanch recent price declines in the market.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ), Dell Inc. (DELL), Toshiba America Inc. and Acer Inc., among others, are releasing a flood of high-end laptops with slim cases and glossy designs, and new one-piece touch-screen desktops, that they hope consumers will be willing to pay a premium for.

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A new electronic book reader is expected Tuesday from book seller Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS) that will challenge readers from Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Sony Corp. (SNE) with a color touch-screen and $259 price, according to a planned ad for the device.

The price for the reader, called the Nook, matches that of Amazon’s Kindle. The Kindle controls about 60 percent of the burgeoning e-book market, according to Forrester Research.

Details of the reader appear in a full-page advertisement viewed by The Wall Street Journal in the New York Times Book Review section dated Sunday, Oct. 25. The advertisement says the Nook will enable its owners to “Lend eBooks to friends.”

A spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble declined to comment.

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A few hours before the global launch of Nokia’s (NOK) latest high-end phone, the company gave a sneak peek at the gadget to a dozen bloggers and journalists gathered at its swank Midtown Manhattan concept store. With an elegant touchscreen that slid open to reveal a full keyboard, the device evoked lust in even the iPhone disciples present. So when can we get it in the U.S.? The company’s answer: “Globally, sometime in the first half of 2009.” The U.S. launch will come after that. No carrier has been announced. In other words, just about never.

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The market for mobile phones, especially for 3G smartphones, is alive and well, says a report this morning from First Global chief strategist Devina Mehra, who writes that mobile phones “continued to record a solid growth and were up 15.3 percent, year over year” in the second quarter “despite challenging economic conditions across the world.” Mehra notes both a “surge” in first-time buyers in developing markets and replacement sales in mature markets, helped by “smartphone features, such as GPS, multimedia and touchscreen.” Gee, ya think? However, the movement of GPS and multimedia to cheaper phones has resulted in some reduction in the industry average selling prices, notes Mehra.

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Oppenheimer’s Yair Reiner has changed his mind on Synaptics (SYNA).

Last month, Reiner cut his rating on the maker of touchscreens used in mobile phones and other devices–on the theory that the aggressive $199 price tag on the new Apple (AAPL) iPhone 3G “will limit the market opportunity for Synaptics’ stable of potential customers.”

Today he changed his mind and flipped back to an Outperform rating, from Perform. “We downgraded a month ago on the thesis that the iPhone’s price reduction would curtail the market opportunity for the competing touchsceen handsets that Synaptics supplies,” he wrote today. “Our thesis was wrong.”

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