Top 10 mobile stories of 2013

It is clear that 2013 has been another huge year for the world of mobile. There have been phone, tablet and phablet launches, ups and downs, and a noticeable increase in the bring your own device (BYOD) trend that cannot be ignored.

With the growth of 4G mobile services and increased demand to be available at all times, smartphones are getting bigger and better, but the competition between mobile giants has created some nail-biting news, as Apple appeared in court, Nokia was bought by Microsoft, and BlackBerry’s future became uncertain.

Here’s a glance at the top 10 mobile stories of 2013:

As sales made on mobile device and tablets increased by 304% in 2011, retailers realised that mobile devices should become an integral part of their IT strategy. As we welcomed 2013, retailers everywhere were implementing their mobile IT sales strategies.

As mobile devices grew, manufacturers realised that the competition was on, and even networking firm Huawei wanted a piece of the action as it launched its own smartphone line-up to compete with Apple, Samsung and Nokia.

With Microsoft’s acquisition of the Nokia phone business, the thought on everybody’s mind was “where will they go next?” This article looked into how Nokia’s acquisition would affect the future of Microsoft.

One of the biggest mobile stories of 2013 was John Chen taking the position of CEO for BlackBerry and promising to push the company forward through failed acquisitions and rumours of scrapping the hardware business.

Apple rolled out iOS7, which turned out not only to be more stylish than the previous iOS, but also improved the security of devices making them safer to use for business.

The past 12 months has seen a rise in competition between tablets and tablet operating systems. As Microsoft rolled out Windows RT, customers moved to other devices. Microsoft's executive vice-president of devices and studios explained why Windows RT was a mistake.

With the delayed release of the BlackBerry Z10, it was expected that as they came in they would fly off the shelves. But soon after its release BlackBerry reported a drop in revenue and failed to report how many Z10 units had been shifted.

Despite BlackBerry’s future looking uncertain, there is no denying that its enterprise software is one of the most secure around. Secure enough that BlackBerry 10, along with Samsung Knox, were deemed secure enough for use by the US military.

The government is officially allowing public sector organisations to introduce BYOD schemes for employees to access data and applications using their own mobile devices. The regulations mean, for the first time, local authorities are officially allowed to use BYOD schemes, but it is clear from the report that CESG would prefer public bodies not to do so.

Mid-2013, iOS product sales dropped in favour of Google’s Android operating system, giving Google the upper hand in the hand-held OS market.

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