Rise of VOD

The UK video-on-demand market has exploded this year – with every British broadcaster, BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five all upping their own web TV game as well beginning to sign aggregation deals. Channel 4 became the first broadcaster around the world to sign full-length content deal with YouTube, and a similar deal then ensued with Five. A UK version of Hulu is still rumoured to launch, with an ITV deal in the offing, and will face increased competition from MSN Video, Arqiva’s SeeSaw and Blinkbox.

Netbook sales continue to climb

Nearly a quarter of all PC sales in Europe is now made up of these tiny sub-laptop boxes with their mini screens, fiddly keyboards and Linux or Windows XP running gear. Newer models include built-in mobile internet access. Subsidies from network operators have kept purchase prices low, making the netbook very attractive to those who do not wish to spend any more than they have to on their computing or enjoy carrying something more versatile than a mobile phone without putting their backs out. Ian Douglas

The End of the CrunchPad

TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington decided last year to put his pundit opinions to good use and try his hand at creating a dirt-cheap web tablet. His November admittance of defeat, and the soap-opera backstory between TechCrunch and gadget maker Fusion Garage made great fodder for the Cassandras of tech journalism.

No device category intrigued the Techmeme audience more than one that doesn't yet exist. Tablet computers -- rather, the idealized thought of them -- dominated discussions in 2009. We've combined two more high ranking tablet-related posts to form the second most important story of the year.

Android goes mainstream

Google's operating system for mobile phones took a little while to get off the ground: T-Mobile's clunky G1 phone was the first to run it, but there was nothing aspirational about the brick-like handset. Then along came the Magic and Hero models, and suddenly it became obvious the the iPhone wasn't the only cool handset with built in music and usable internet. Crucially, too, the Android app market has expanded massively: now Google's phones can do almost anything you need, from tracking train times to reading Office documents. MW