State of the smart

With 2008 drawing to a close, Icon's experts recap an eventful and entertaining year in technology.

MOBILE PHONES

iPhone. That's just about all you need to say about mobile phones in 2008 because almost every newsworthy development seemed to hinge on Apple's sexy smartphone.

There was the local launch of the device itself, which saw queues stretching around the blocks on a chilly mid-winter morning in July. There was the subsequent meltdown of Optus's 3G network, as iPhone users attracted by the carrier's best-in-class deals swarmed onto the airwaves and choked the 3G channels with their browsing and downloading.

Even the launch of other mobile phones was often seen through the iPhone filter. Did it have a touchscreen? Was it an "iPhone killer"? Nokia, Samsung, LG and HTC all lined up to release their own touchphones.

This month we'll even see a touchscreen BlackBerry in the shape of the BlackBerry Storm, although the August launch of the more conventional BlackBerry Bold created plenty of excitement among the mobile email community.

But the real game-changer will be the next generation of mobile phones powered by Google's Android operating system. The first of these touched down in November in the US, and plenty are sure to follow next year. The reason? Android is freely available to any mobile phone manufacturer and leverages Google's free suite of internet services, such as email, news, searching and maps.

LAPTOPS

The computing tables turned in 2008 as laptops outsold desktop PCs for the first time. Driven by the lure of portability and go-anywhere computing, and buoyed by wireless access to the internet through public Wi-Fi hotspots and high-speed 3G networks, laptops are expected to eventually hold two-thirds of the overall computer market.

Most of the action is happening at the smaller and slimmer end of the scale, with Intel cooking up tiny superchips to suit. The aptly named Atom processor, for example, can pack two million transistors into the full stop at the end of this line.

The Atom is the powerplant of "netbooks" - those compact Lilliputian laptops with screens about 23 centimetres and price tags hovering at the $700 mark. This year saw almost every major notebook manufacturer release at least one netbook model and already the range is diversifying to include models with larger screens (now up to 30 centimetres, in the case of Dell's Inspiron Mini 12) and stylishly thin designs (such as Asus's Eee PC S101).

continue here...