FierceMobileIT's top stories of the year

As I comb through the FierceMobileIT site looking for the top news reports to highlight, I cannot help but be amazed at the sheer volume of buzz on the mobile IT scene, as well as the blistering pace of progress.

Smartphones are poised for explosive growth in the coming year, if a study that pegged half of mobile consumers intending to buy a smartphone over the next two years is even remotely accurate. For mainstream software developers, developing for the major platforms such as Apple's iPhone, Microsoft's Windows Mobile, RIM's BlackBerry OS and Google's fast growing Android, will be a way of life. For a more in-depth look, you can check out our interview with Jenn Figueroa of DataViz as she talks about the company's flagship Documents To Go product and porting to other platforms.

Indeed, so intense is the competition that Microsoft has to come forward--yet again--to reiterate that it has no intentions to make its own handsets. Microsoft has more to worry about than Windows Mobile, given that netbooks are inexorably eating into Microsoft's revenues. This problem can only grow, with the sales of subnetbooks reaching new heights.

While we may have witnessed excruciatingly slow progress on battery technology in the past, new breakthroughs will hopefully see the creation of ultra capacitors which double the existing power density. Also promising is Toshiba's new battery that charges up to 90 percent in a mere 10 minutes. With U.S. firms joining forces to regain the tech lead in making batteries, we can all hope that 2009 will see some of this technology filtering down to the consumer electronics level.

Finally, as you celebrate this holiday season, folks on capped data plans might want to read the fine print, and avoid running up five-digit bills like England's Ian Simpson did.

This will be the last newsletter for 2008, so we'll see you again when we resume publication after the holidays, on January 7, 2009. Feedback and suggestions are welcome, as usual. And yes, do check out the top stories from FierceMobileIT for 2008. Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year! - Paul