The winners of the much anticipated Mobile Industry Awards were revealed last week, as the industry gathered at The Brewery in London for a glamorous evening.
For this year's awards, Mobile put in place the most rigorous judging process yet.
The best in each category was decided through consumer and industry surveys as well as judging panels made up of operators, retailers and manufacturers.
For the first time Mobile also ran a Person of the Year award as part of the industry's Power 50, won by 3’s CEO, Kevin Russell. O2’s Cath Keers and Mark Stansfeld were recognised for special Lifetime Achievement awards.
But the most nail-biting moment came as the winner of Shop Idol 2008 was announced. Jason Jones from Virgin Mobile could only say ‘I’m shocked,’ as he walked from the stage with his trophy.
The most closely contested category was the Phone of the Year, which the iPhone managed to snatch away from the N95. Nokia was unanimously voted the winner of the Best Manufacturer, and O2 came top on the Best Network category.
Phones 4u took the title for Best Retailer and the BlackBerry Pearl became Best Business Device.