In case you haven’t tried one of those miracle phones that respond to your every need just by touching their screen, then it’s time to do some shopping! The only problem is there are so many smartphones to choose from, that you’ll probably end up buying either the most popular one, or the least expensive one, unless you know exactly what you’re looking for.

I personally think the touch-screen doesn’t make up for all the things a phone needs to have, but apparently, we live in a touch-screen world, and phone producers know it. Although this is not yet a true recipe for success, sneaking a touch-phone in this year’s line was somewhat mandatory, in order to catch up with the new and improved iPhone 3G.

The competition this year included Samsung’s Instinct, HTC’s G1, newcomer BlackBerry Storm, and of course, the iPhone 3G everyone’s been chasing after. Not even Motorola resisted the temptation and announced plans for a touch-screen phone that will be cheaper, smarter, better than any other similar device on the market.

Seeing all these devices, the only big thing that separates them is the platform. As we all know, Apple’s iPhone appeals to a lot of consumers for being very user-friendly. On the other hand, there’s the BlackBerry Storm, designed to cross the line between business users and regular users, yet a bit slow when compared to the iPhone. And then there’s the Android platform, developed by Google, which a lot of phone makers promised to embrace in the near future.

The first one to do it was HTC, who released the G1 Android phone this fall, offering a remarkable combination of touch-screen, physical keyboard, fast software and all the apps you’ve ever dreamed of. Motorola also said an Android phone is in its plans, and it will cost less than $180.

The latest addition to the market is the BlackBerry Storm, recently put on sale. Overall, it’s undeniably a good phone, but there’s still a bit of confusion when it comes to the segment of consumers RIM is targeting. Because if they’ll ever try to convince an Apple fan to make a switch, they’re likely to fail, and if they try to convince old BlackBerry users to give up the physical keyboard for the touch-screen, they’ll probably end up short as well.

In addition to the ongoing battle between the devices, there’s also an ongoing battle between mobile carriers. A successful launch usually implies not only a smart gadget, but also an exclusive deal with one of the operators. The operators in turn try to outdo each other with attractive subscription plans for old and new customers.

So the big question is: what to choose?