With millions of mobile apps on the market, there were bound to be some strange ones:

•  Baby Shaker. And by bizarre, we mean offensive, inexcusable and how did this ever make it on through the iPhone App Store approval process?
•  The upskirt iPhone app?

More after the break, including our readers’ responses…

more

Throughout 2009, consumers were talking (or Tweeting) the most about:

•  Location-based mobile services/apps
•  Facebook tops 300 million users, even Friendster comes back from the dead – social network still a fad?

More after the break… more

In 2009, these trends stole all the headlines:

•  Cloud and virtualization coming to operator networks – stage 2.1 of the IP revolution
•  DPI and policy intelligence added to the network – stage 2.2 of the IP revolution
•  LTE emerging rapidly, along with converged packet core – stage 2.3 of the IP revolution

More after the break, including the best reader responses… more

Revenue was harder to come by in 2009, but these business models put a new spin on making money:

•  Charging competitors for preferred access to the network – CDNs, wholesaling of network APIs, quality of service guarantees for over-the-top players
•  Whoever successfully moves Google’s Ad Words ad engine (Google itself; someone new) into the world of mobile advertising
•  Taking advantage of billions of M2M devices plus the possibility of driving mobile penetration among consumers from 80% to 400% (every customer has multiple wireless devices)

More after the break… more

In 2009, everyone but the companies in question (okay, mainly Google and Apple) were talking about:

•  Google buys Sprint.
•  Cisco and/or Google acquiring everybody – both are back on acquisition trail, they say

More after the break, including our readers’ responses… more

These technologies might be as old as the name Telephony, but they just needed a new twist to make it big (Connected Planet, anyone?):

•  Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM), boosting the speed of ol’ DSL
•  SONET as timing-enabling transport for IP/Ethernet
•  The decades-old concept of AIN – Advanced Intelligent Network – actually deployed on today’s IP networks

More after the break… more

These companies, which burst on to the scene in 2009, could steal the scene in 2010:

•  Best Buy – The big-box retailer is making its presence in the wireless world known. It has the potential to give wireless operators a run for their money.
•  Move Networks
•  Root Wireless

More after the break… more

When these products came on the market, everything changed:

•  Google’s turn-by-turn navigation app for Android
•  Google’s Goggles, mobile visual search
•  Swype – It is just now being shipped on the Samsung Omnia II, but it’s definitely the most innovative text input since T9 and touchscreens.

More after the break…. more

In 2009, even a crystal ball would have a hard time predicting:

•  Most Internet traffic bypasses tier-one networks
•  Ciena beats Nokia Siemens in the auction for Nortel’s assets.
•  Infinera introduces new gear without its flagship chips inside.

More after the break, including the best from our readers: more

Whether you think they’re buzz-worthy or not, we’ll be happy if we never hear these industry favorites again:

•  Cloud and/or cloud computing
•  TV Everywhere
•  4G
•  Over-the-top
•  shovel-ready

More after the break… more