A decade of PDAs and smartphones: 2009 and beyond

2009

The smartphone industry is one of the few that gets more exciting every year and this rule has never failed to materialise as huge companies pump vast amounts of money into development in the desperate effort to create the next big thing. In 2009 the devices that were released were maybe not as important as the change the mobile phone market experienced. Never in my time writing about PDAs and smartphones have I seen so many smart mobile devices carried by so many people. It is not just the iPhone that is popular, but BlackBerry’s are commonplace now alongside the latest and greatest from HTC, Nokia and the rest. Network providers in the US and Europe can now see the benefits of offering smarter devices and this is evident in the desperate rush to keep up with the mobile bandwidth used by business people and consumers alike. Time will come when every mobile phone will be smart and in theory there is no smartphone market anymore- smartphone is just a word that no one can really define properly.

Palm bounced back in 2009 with webOS and the Palm Pre and Pixi, but not to the level analysts expect to see these days. webOS is without doubt a great OS, but at this time its future is uncertain and rumours continue to circulate concerning Nokia or Microsoft buying it up and filling the gap both companies have; a mobile operating system that can compete with iPhone, BlackBerry and Android.

RIM continued to dominate in terms of sales figures and it is a remarkable achievement for an operating system which is completely opposed to the iPhone and Android in so many ways. It goes to show that people need specific functionality in a mobile phone and good hardware is essential to continue forward. I still believe that RIM needs to seriously overhaul the BlackBerry OS to continue its dominance, but I have been saying that for 2 years now so what do I know?

Nokia has floundered somewhat, but is still in a dominant position. It seems to be clear that the Symbian OS will not suffice in high-end smartphones and we can safely bet that Maemo will find itself powering Nokia’s big hitters at some stage in 2010. Once again Nokia churned out too many similar phones in 2009 which failed to set the world alight. Only the N900 offered something new and that still requires software updates to fulfil its potential.

Apple released the 3GS which truly made the iPhone a great smartphone. Many people, including me, still won’t use a purely touch screen device so hopefully we will see some more choice announced this month.

HTC has moved into the big leagues and now advertises heavily alongside Apple. The HD2 was a hugely ambitious smartphone which somehow works despite reaching the absolute limit of the size a mobile phone should be. HTC also pioneered Android which is quickly becoming a force in the industry. The superb Hero and Tattoo were only matched by the Motorola Droid which has given the latter a new lease of life. The Nexus will only cement the future of Android further, but I suspect that Apple will polish away some of the gloss with the next iPhone.

Most significant device of 2009: HTC Hero

It would be easy for me to write lots of predictions for 2010, but I strongly suspect that it will be a case of more of the same. Apple, RIM and HTC will continue to flourish while the likes of Nokia and Palm have some serious catching up to do. Nokia needs a new operating system and Palm needs better hardware; a match made in heaven? Whatever happens 2010 promises to be an exciting year with the Nexus, iPhone 4, BlackBerry Tour 2, HTC Legend, Xperia X10 and so many more carrying on the smartphone tradition of making the previous year feel like something from a bygone age.

Related articles: A decade of PDAs and smartphones: 2000-2002 / A decade of PDAs and smartphones: 2003-2005 / A decade of PDAs and smartphones: 2006-2008