Over the past few months, Apple's iPhone for the first time sold more units than all phones using rival Microsoft's Windows Mobile software, but sales of smartphones (phones that do e-mail, internet, and other computer-like things) overall reached their lowest rate of growth yet recorded. You've likely seen the now-iconic iPhone all over the place, but Microsoft's Windows Mobile is the more subtle software installed on many of the most popular handsets intended for business customers. Either business-types are warming up to the iPhone, or folks are finally buying smartphones to strengthen personal relationships in addition to professional ones — maybe a little of both.

Sales for expensive smartphones are still growing, but in the third quarter of this year they saw their least successful period yet thanks to the economic recession. Even as that's happening, it looks like some of the old giants in the industry are losing ground. For example, Nokia (the world's biggest cellphone manufacturer) slipped a few points because it didn't produce a touchscreen — a feature that's been all the rage. That's technology for you: always changing!

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