Apple and BlackBerry have been told that 2010 will be the year of the operating system, which will decide the success of individual handsets, according to an expert.

With an iPhone 4G rumoured to be in development, mobile phone users have been told that they will be "overwhelmed" with different operating systems this year.

Neil McHugh, co-founder of Rightmobilephone.co.uk, said: "Some will fall away into obscurity but those that can provide a robust, reliable, easy-to-use operating system and manage consumers’ ever growing communication and social interaction needs, will be the big winners of 2010."

The expert added that mobile phones such as the iPhone have become very personal and reflective, with new products needing to continue supporting technology improvements.

Earlier this week, research firm Gartner revealed that the iPhone’s market share has jumped by around six percentage points from 8.2 to 14.4 per cent from 2008 to 2009.

Apple and BlackBerry have been told that 2010 will be the year of the operating system, which will decide the success of individual handsets, according to an expert.

With an iPhone 4G rumoured to be in development, mobile phone users have been told that they will be “overwhelmed” with different operating systems this year.

Neil McHugh, co-founder of Rightmobilephone.co.uk, said: “Some will fall away into obscurity but those that can provide a robust, reliable, easy-to-use operating system and manage consumers’ ever growing communication and social interaction needs, will be the big winners of 2010.”

The expert added that mobile phones such as the iPhone have become very personal and reflective, with new products needing to continue supporting technology improvements.

Earlier this week, research firm Gartner revealed that the iPhone’s market share has jumped by around six percentage points from 8.2 to 14.4 per cent from 2008 to 2009.

A new music streaming service has been launched for the iPhone, allowing its premium plus subscribers to listen to their favourite tunes while they are out and about.

The application, which is now available in the App Store, will not be fully activated until March 1st, and will only work for those who have signed up to its £9.99 per month service.

Steve Purdham, We7’s chief executive, said that the two-tiered subscription, which allows users to turn adverts on or off, will help the company fit into a digital music economy where “there is no single business model that fits all”.

We7 will face fierce competition from Spotify for fans of streaming music, with the Swedish service releasing an application last year.

The programme allows users of the iPhone to search for new music and store playlists on their phone for use when they are without a connection to the internet.

Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android phone were among the top selling smartphone devices last year, with customers looking increasingly towards applications when buying a new handset.

Technology research firm Gartner said that the iPhone and the Android saw the largest increases in the worldwide smartphone market, with the Apple product taking a 14.4 per cent share and the HTC 3.9 per cent.

The iPhone also managed to clip the wings of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, with its market share dropping from 11.8 per cent to 8.7 and the Apple device becoming the market leader.

However, Symbian, which powers many Nokia devices, remained the dominant smartphone operating system, with a market share of 46.9 per cent.

Applications are playing a large role in people’s smartphone choices, according to Gartner, with Apple having three billion of them downloaded in the last 18 months.

Among those that have proved popular include a Sky Mobile application which allows people to watch live sports programmes and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.

iPhone fans researching which network to get their handset on have been given the results of new network tests, which show that O2 and Vodafone have come out on top.

Research by SIRODA, a company which tests radio frequencies and capabilities, found that Vodafone is the fastest operator in the UK for accessing the web, while O2 won for the speed of music downloads.

It measured five UK operators across a 60-day period in 150 different locations to come up with the results.

Last month, Vodafone managed to achieve the fastest web access speed outside of London. However, the capital recorded the quickest access time at 1.7 seconds, 30 per cent quicker than the slowest operator, iPhone fans have been told.

On the downloading front, something which is important to iPhone users, O2 was the fastest network to get an MP3 file over in 12 out of 20 cities.

Recently, iPhone users were boosted when Apple increased the cap for downloads over 3G networks from 10mb to 20mb.