Technological Buzz for 2010

While 2009 was so-so in terms of technological revolution in the mobile segment, 2010 is a good year for technology. The technological war in 2010 shifted heavily to mobile computing and smartphones thanks to the continuous proliferation of wifi and affordable data plans.

Q1

1. XPERIA X10 - Everything about this device leaked during the late 2009. It was such a crazy ride with various sites overbumping the specs to include HD video recording and in-board storage of 32GB. The UI also made it to youtube and made people all the more excited. It was announced during the MWC and made available near Q2.

2. HTC Desire - one of the first devices that came out-of-the-box with Eclair and the twin of Nexus One. Techradar quotes this device as the best phone of 2010, beating the iPhone 4, Galaxy S, Desire HD, the Nokia N8, and a host of others.

3. Samsung Wave / Bada OS - Announced at the MWC, what really drew attention to this device was its Super AMOLED display capable of displaying perfect blacks and very good contrast. Samsung's decision to make a new OS, however, was not so lauded and people were skeptical at first.

Q2

1. iPhone 4 - leaked by Gizmodo (remember when they picked one at a local pub, lol, and the staff's place was all policed up) and released late June 2010 in the US

2. iOS 4 - Folders, multitasking, and a host of other features made it to the iOS 4 and the Apple fanboys rejoiced

3. Android 2.2 (Froyo) - Dubbed as the leapfrog in Android OS evolution, Froyo was made available last May 2010. It includes faster operation via JIT compiler, web Flash Lite support, and Chrome's V8 JS engine to name a few.

Q3

1. Samsung Galaxy S - announced last March and released July in various spots all over the world, the Samsung Galaxy S family has sold 9.3 million units across the globe.

2. Blackberry Torch - Storm marries Bold and the nuptial was made public last August. Comparisons to iOS and Android made it shine less, though, while it maintains grace for its keyboard and improved usability--compared to its sisters.

Q4

1. Nokia N8/Symbian ^3 - Nokia was mum for much of 2010, releasing phones that made little impact. They announced the Nokia N8 and the Symbian ^3 which was supposed to pick things up for them, but critics were not very generous with Symbian ^3. The camera module on the N8 was lauded, though.

2. HP Palm Pre 2 - The update to WebOS, Palm's OS, saw shiny eye candies and attracted new interest. The Palm Pre 2 was a beefed up Palm Pre. Like the N8, critics weren't very friendly to this little device--again comparing it to iOS and Android phones.

3. Gingerbread - Android's latest iteration excited tech sites and Android fans. Along with the announcement of the Samsung Google Nexus S. It saw minor improvements over Froyo, with speed and battery use improvements as the only major differentiators from the previous Android flavor.

4. Play Station Phone - Engadget leaked the device and everyone at twitter started talking. I am seeing the same series of events that would lead to this phone's release--dozens of leaks even before it is announced and a pretty spoiled announcement. Rumors now say that it will sell under the name Xperia Play.