A lot can happen in a year of tech development, especially in the fast-paced world of mobile, but how far have we come over the past year? Let’s step back in time and remember…
April – Google Nexus One available in UK (finally) Huge tidal waves of anticipation washed across gadget fans before the Google Nexus One was released back in late 2009, but it took ages to reach our shores. In the UK, it launched in January but only became widely available to buy in the UK in April. If you were just too pumped-up with Android love, you had to import one.
Even with import tax added, the cost was similar to the price you’d have to pay SIM-free, so plenty of tech geeks took the dive early. The Google Nexus One’s dominance was short-lived though, with the HTC Desire offering the snazzy Sense UI and an optical trackpad instead of a trackball. Both phones were made by HTC and based on the same core design.
April – Fist Super AMOLED phone – Samsung Wave Our eyes almost popped out of their sockets when we saw our first Super AMOLED screen, in the Samsung Wave. Its screen is so clear, so bright and so colourful that it demands a second, third and fourth look.
Samsung’s Super AMOLED tech uses the backlight-free display of a normal AMOLED screen, but merges the touchscreen and display layers. This allows the display housing to be smaller and reduces the amount of light lost in its travels from the screen to your retina. If you’ve yet to experience the majesty of the Wave’s screen, seek it out. The higher pixel density means it looks even better than the Samsung Galaxy S’s superb screen.
April – HP buys Palm – WebOS not dead! Palm’s WebOS was one of the great smartphone hopes of 2009 but, let’s be honest, it crashed and burned in the Palm Pre. The Palm OS isn’t out for the count yet though, thanks to HP. The tech giant bought Palm in April and has vowed to keep WebOS in the picture. The Palm Pre 2 was the result, but we’re hoping for even greater things in 2011.
April – iPad launches Perhaps the ultimate new tech product of the year, the Apple iPad single-handedly proved that tablets aren’t just the marketing by-product of CEOs not happy with their smartphone sales. It sold three million units within 80 days, and rumours of the iPad 2 are flowing thick and fast. Give it three months and it could already be on shelves.
June – iPhone 4 launches Hot on the heels of the iPad was the iPhone 4, the most dynamically different iteration of the iPhone series since it began back in 2007. It’s a thing of beauty. Slim, tough and yet delicate too. Whatever you do, don’t drop it on concrete.
The early days of the iPhone 4’s life weren’t without incident though. Antennagate soon reared its head, causing all sorts of trouble for Apple. The iPhone 4’s signal would drop as soon as you gripped the bottom left of the phone’s bod. Apple solved the problem (well, sort of) by offering all iPhone 4 owners a case. Since then, everyone seems to have forgotten the whole thing happened. Phew.
September – Samsung Galaxy Tab, first high-end Android tabletThe Samsung Galaxy Tab — would it be enough to threaten the supermacy of the iPad? Sales of the expensive Samsung tablet haven’t matched the iPhone’s but it has performed respectably, with over a million units shifted.
And that was with Google saying its OS, Android 2.2, wasn’t really up to the task. Technically it’s not but if you can put up with the niggles involved with this, it’s still one of the year’s best gadgets.
October – Windows Phone 7 launches Finally! Windows for mobile phone stopped being a pain to use, and it only took Microsoft a handful of years to pull it off. Windows Phone 7 is even more rigid than the iPhone’s iOS but it isn’t half pretty. The OS is only just bedding-in now, with a young app store and growing recognisation among the wider gadget-loving public.
December – the rise of NFC begins It’s still early days for Near Field Communication tech in mobiles, but it’s set to become a big part of the smartphone future. Support for it is built into Android 2.3 Gingerbread, lauched in December, and rumours indicate it’ll be jammed into the next iPhone iteration too. NFC could turn your phone into a method of payment or identification. It could change the way we shop on the high street completely.
