November
Despite the launch of WP7, Symbian ^3 and webOS 2.0, the battle for smartphone supremacy was still between Apple and Google as the year drew to a close. Some new studies revealed Apple was selling more iPhones than ever, but that Android was growing even faster.
On the chip side of things, the rivalry between UK low-power chip designers ARM and Imagination Technologies continued, as ARM launched its next generation graphics core design and Imagination responded by saying it's not bothered. The mobile chip market leader Qualcomm doesn't license designs from either, however, and launched its latest Snapdragon this month.
Meanwhile AMD, which had previously played-down its ambitions in the tablet space, started talking up the capabilities of its imminent new Fusion chips, which combine the CPU and GPU in a relatively low-power package. Amazingly AMD announced it was collaborating with Intel in the MeeGo project and then, in her exclusive HEXUS blog, AMD VP Leslie Sobon talked up the potential of the new chips in embedded systems.
Acer and LG both launched tablets this month, while News Corp and Virgin both revealed new publications developed specifically for the iPad, and UK mobile operators started to offer subsidies for the iPad.
Facebook's apparently unstoppable progress continued as it launched a new messaging service that was perceived by many to be a major threat to products like Gmail, Windows Live Messenger as well as bidding to supplant SMS. CEO Mark Zuckerberg would go on to be named Time magazine's person of the year.
