Year in Review 2010: The top mobile content stories

There's an old saying about the weather here in my native Midwest: If you don't like it, wait a few minutes and it will change. The mobile content sector is no different--it seems to exist in a constant state of flux, and just when you think you've got it all figured out, everything transforms yet again. It's inevitable that the pace of innovation and change will slow down sooner or later... but it isn't happening yet.

In this special year-in-review issue, FierceMobileContent looks back at the headlines and trends that shaped 2010 and set the stage for the revolutions to come. Twelve months in mobile is like 12 years in other verticals: Think back to a year ago, when Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) began emerging as a viable threat to Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) mobile dominance; as 2010 closes, Google reigns as the industry's premier powerbroker, with its Android mobile operating system on pace to dominate the global smartphone market and its lead in businesses like mobile search and mobile advertising now wider than ever before. A year ago, there was no iPad and no Windows Phone 7--Angry Birds was barely out of the nest, and foursquare was only a playground game. A year from now... who knows? One guarantee: It will be different, probably significantly so. Like an even older saying goes, the only constant is change.

Please note that we are on publishing hiatus until Monday, Jan. 3. Have a memorable and safe holiday season, and we'll see you back here in 2011. -Jason