Even if 2008 can be called many names, it is certainly the smartphone year, as more and more iPhone rivals have been launched throughout this year. Device makers rolled out their latest and best phones, with many multimedia features and corporate functions. Firstly, Apple launched its own iPhone 3G.

Research in Motion (RIM) joined the battle of the touchscreen phones by launching Blackberry Storm and Google launched the first smartphone based on the open-source Google Android operating system with the help of HTC and T-Mobile. The phone is called G1, and G2 will probably appear next year.

Furthermore, devices makers took charge, packing portable devices with enough capabilities to make them pocket-size PCs or Macs, in iPhone's case. We can take these smartphones one at a time. T-Mobile's G1 has many of the features of a touch-based device and that enables users to control the device and reorganise the screen layout using fingertip control.

However, the G1 is a heavily web-focused device that has more in common with mobile internet devices than most smartphones. RIM's Blackberry Storm also looks like a true iPhone killer, even if it received not so good critics. Nokia also launched the E71, a device aimed at the same email-centric business base as Blackberry users.

Smartphones have been around for longer than most people realise, as Symbian, the company founded to develop a new OS specifically for phones, has recently celebrated its tenth anniversary.

However, Symbian has always represented a small fraction of the global handset market. It really looks like this emerging market will become the most important one in 2009, as more and more companies have announced their intentions to develop the best smartphone ever. It remains to be seen if Apple manages to keep its top place.