Mobile 2008: Recycling and surfing all the way

Mobility turned out to be somewhat of a golden child for the IT industry in 2008. And it looks set to continue its run of glory in 2009 and beyond. But some of the mobile stories during the past 12 months grabbed slightly more attention than others.

The industry benefited from several large dollops of innovation with the BlackBerry Bold, E71,

HTC Touch HD, iPhone 3G, N96 and Samsung Omnia to name but a mere handful of innovative devices that came our way this year. It would be remiss of us not to mention Google’s Android platform here, with T-Mobile’s G1 debuting the technology in the UK.

Palm also upped its game, serving up the Palm Treo Pro to those eager to say loyal to the company but who also craved something different. The mobile maker felt the ill effects of market downturn quite early, announcing less than rosy results and job cuts - but only after mounting speculation of a sale and having been given a helping hand by the company U2’s front man Bono co-founded.

The past 12 months saw us aiming to equip our bobbies on the beat with mobile tech to help them police the streets. We also watched seemingly helplessly as the government took mobility a little too far by letting an MoD representative store data on a USB stick and the dance the night away in a club, leaving their little mobile friend behind.

Mobile also became an official member of the Mile High club, with both BMI and Ryanair embarking on pilots to test out the demand for such a service onboard.

There’s also been the ongoing mobile roaming saga, with many campaigning to level the playing field in terms of Europe-wide costs for some time – thankfully with ultimate success. Although another debate has now started focused on high-end mobile phone tax.

2008 was also the year of the mobile web, with research suggesting our appetite for the net on the move has doubled. Given the increased sophistication of devices – and not just the iPhone this year – getting your web fix while out and about has become a much, much nicer experience than days gone by.

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