2008: The year in mobile
From businessy iPhones to moon mobiles...
2008 was a year of change in the mobile sphere - not least for the iPhone which switched from being exclusively a shiny consumer toy to a business-friendly mobility tool as Apple licensed Microsoft ActiveSync for Exchange email access. The iPhone hasn't stormed the enterprise bastion quite yet but is apparently proving popular with SMEs. Not bad going for a newbie.
Meanwhile BlackBerry-maker RIM has also felt winds of change - with co-CEO Mike Lazaridis telling silicon.com Qwerty keyboards are the future - only for the company to launch a touchscreen device a few months later, the BlackBerry Storm.
The year in mobile - 2008
Click on the links below to read silicon.com's top 10 mobile stories of the year...
BlackBerrys squashed by Whitehall data ban
Mobiles on the moon? Nasa prepares trial for takeoff
Apple iPhone 'ready for business'
iPhone nano: Fact or fiction?
RIM co-CEO: Qwerty is the next big thing
UK crime fighters grapple with iPhone wipe threat
Oyster brand and credit crunch to hit O2 mobile wallet?
Symbian CEO on open source, Windows Mobile and 'usability'
'BlackBerry Storm was Vodafone's idea': RIM co-CEO
Photos: 10 years of bananas, flips and candybars
Mobile OS maker Symbian switched from being a propriety operation charging licence fees, to an open source foundation giving its millions of lines of code away for free. silicon.com sat down with CEO Nigel Clifford to discuss the new strategy.
From software to hardware: the evolution of mobile handsets inspired this photo story - looking back over 10 years of iconic mobile phone design, from Nokia's 'Matrix phone' to the elegant Ericsson T28.
In the news bag, stories making waves in 2008 included revelations that certain phones and PDAs had been banned in Whitehall as the UK government clamped down on the movement of unencrypted personal data. (Data breaches have been rising up the public agenda for years and this year had its fair share of embarrassment in the halls of power.)
Data held on mobiles was also a concern for digital forensic security expert Keith Foggon who warned silicon.com that smart phones are making life difficult for police trying to recover evidence of criminal activity.
The 'strange but true' mobile story of the year must be this news piece about lunar colonists getting their very own mobile phone network. Safe to say it hasn't happened yet - and indeed may never get off the ground - but the mental imagine of moon folk chatting about meteorite showers on their astromobiles is a pleasing one.
And last but not least - in the mobile comment corner - the iPhone again stands tall, with columnists lining up to list features they want but it doesn't have (for some reason nobody thinks to write such stuff about Windows Mobile phones - which suggests Apple is doing something right, despite the moans).
But it wouldn't be a mobile year without an entertaining rumour or two to chew over and the prospect of an iPhone nano gave 2008 it's slice of fanciful fun. Who knows what will march out of Cupertino in 2009 but right now we can all throw our heads back and laugh at the notion of a bottom-dialling, front-facing mobile phone. Maybe.