Ian Clarke, solutions director for O2, sat down recently to give his take (and we agree with most of it) on the state of the mobile market going into 2009.

In 2008, the iPhone created a huge wave in the market in terms of design, features, interface and overall customer experience. It helped stimulate the handset market by prompting handset manufacturers to create even better devices with improved designs and interfaces, all taking advantage of the higher data speeds being offered by the networks (not to mention having to work extra hard to compete in the marketplace). As a result, 2008 was the year when mobile data really took off.

The year 2009 will see further innovation around the touch screen functionality we have already seen on some of these devices improving the user experience even further. More simple commands, more ease of daily use, and more customizability will be the hallmarks of the next year.

One of the main developments in 2009 will be camera phone functionality. Most camera phones are throw-ins with 2 or 3 MP and grainy pictures not of much use really. With camera phone features already offering face detection, editing and other user-friendly features historically reserved for digital cameras, consumers will increasingly be choosing a camera phone as a single device rather than a phone plus a camera tacked on. It’s always a sore spot when the cameras on these phones seem to not have had any work put into them.

More devices will be launched on the Android platform, ultimately offering customers and businesses a wide range of applications to make their lives easier on the move. The move seems to be towards more accessibility and open-source thinking, at least in the mobile world. Even Apple has started to open up their thinking to allow more accessibility to the inner workings of the iPhone. This trend will definitely continue in the coming year.