From the moment Apple announced its iPhone at Macworld 2007, the tech world hasn't stopped asking questions. Because Apple has kept many iPhone details under wraps until very recently, we've been forced to speculate. Until now. Is the iPhone pretty? Absolutely. Is it easy to use? Certainly. Does it live up to the stratospheric hype? Not so much. Don't get us wrong, the iPhone is a lovely device with a sleek interface, top-notch music and video features, and innovative design touches. The touch screen is easier to use than we expected, and the multimedia performs well. But a host of missing features, a dependency on a sluggish EDGE network, and variable call quality--it is a phone after all--left us wanting more. For those reasons, the iPhone is noteworthy not for what it does, but how it does it. If you want an iPhone badly, you probably already have one. But if you're on the fence, we suggest waiting for the second-generation handset. Even with the new $399 price for the 8GB model (down from an original price of $599), it's still a lot to ask for a phone that lacks so many features and locks you into an iPhone-specific two-year contract with AT&T. We'll be more excited once we see a version with--at the very least--multimedia messaging and 3G.

For Sony Ericsson one of the prioritized fields is development of UIQ-smartphones, yet limited funds and R&D-resources don’t do the company justice, not allowing it to release a batch of offerings at a time. The year 2006 saw three smartphones of this kind – the P990i, M600i, W950i (with local editions of these devices ignored). In 2007 the company was setting off to launch at least around 7 handsets, out of which three will be the base editions and the other four will act as variations (music edition, with/without camera, enabled/disabled WiFi). But these intentions will never become something bigger and more real; over there they have totally revised the UIQ-related strategy.

Month after month, HTC throws in a wide range of Pocket PCs and Smartphones on the market in the hope of overwhelming its rivals (e.g. Eten, Palm, HP). Regardless the fact that HTC has already won the fight, I still think that the newcomers on the market like Asus, Gigabyte and even I-mate will make it hard for HTC to maintain its number 1 spot as a Pocket PC manufacturer.

The Taiwanese company seems to develop a flawless market strategy which pursues a single goal that has become nearly an obsession - "the offerings of many models for as many targets as possible". Furthermore, starting with the X7500 Advantage, HTC takes on a new adventure that will ultimately make it stand out as an UMPC manufacturer. Top of the HTC's high-end lineup, Advantage is destined for the road and businessmen will soon find out that it's better to get the 350 grams HTC device than a 3 kilograms notebook.