This was a really, really hard post to write and somewhat accounts for the delay in finally putting it up. I’ve been chopping and changing things for a month now and it’s finally time to get it posted before we embark on 3GSM madness.

As you (hopefully) know, the Carnival of the Mobilists is a weekly celebration of the best writing about mobile from around the world. This post brings you the best writing of the year and is therefore definitely worth reading in full and voting on your favourite one. Voting details at the end, but please don’t forget to vote.

Our finalists are chosen, by firstly nominating their own favourite writing over the year and sending them to me. Then, utterly ruthlessly, I whittle them down to 10 which I present here for your delight and edification. Over 50 entries were received, so what we have here is the creme de la creme for you to enjoy. This also means that if you entered and didn’t get this far, I’m sorry, but the standard was very high and I hope we can still be pals.

So, let’s kick off with our winners. In no special order…..

First off, we have Stephanie Rieger’s Casual Mobile Snacks for Everyone. Stephanie takes a look at mobile gaming and not only finds the future promising, but thinks that there’s some clues in watching kids at play. Maybe we’re nothing more than big kids at heart.

Sticking to the gaming theme, Arjan Olsder’s entry on the Mobile Gaming Blog is fascinating reading, though the content consists of more than a little gamesmanship in itself - it’s a mega-compilation of 2007 predictions and deep thoughts from 32 games experts from around the world. Now, some would say this is a little like cheating, but then it took a lot of work to round these things up and I think his chutzpah and effort deserves a nomination in itself. But my big problem is that there’s no Mobilists featured in the post!

Dennis at Wap Review chose his round up of 2006 as his post and I promise that the nice things he wrote about AdMob didn’t influence my decision at all. However, he did make an important point that often gets overlooked in all the hype about mobile advertising

“What’s so great about that [AdMob]? Simply this, advertising makes the mobile web economically viable. Before AdMob, the off-portal mobile web was dying, there was no way to pay the bills except perhaps with porn and gambling. Only the carriers made money with the mobile web and carriers don’t innovate.”

The tireless Rudy De Waele needs no introduction from me, but perhaps surprisingly he didn’t feature one of his famous Women in Mobile posts. Instead, Rudy focuses on the brutal murder of the iPod by Nokia N91 - this was before the launch of the iPhone, which some would argue put the final nail in the iPod coffin quite cheerfully itself last month. Is Rudy right? I think so, but there’s plenty who would lynch him for such blasphemy and dissing of the House of Jobs.

Xen Dolev is next up, with her post linking 4 interviews with members of the Mobile Youth team together - a little more gamesmanship here, Xen? But all 4 of the original posts are worth checking out, as they’re full of insightful glimpses into what makes today’s yoof tick and a must read if your work in mobile involves young dudes. And that’s all of us, no?

Keith, from TeleBusilliss focuses on the ongoing legal shenanigans between Qualcomm and seemingly, the rest of the world. Qualcomm’s legal expenses currently exceed an eye-watering $100 million for 2006 and are expected to double in 2007. As an aside, it’s so cold here in Germany that I even saw a lawyer today with his hands in his own pockets.

While Keith’s post is about the legal battles, it offers a fascinating insight into what’s actually going on in the industry and what’s at stake for the main players.

Old Carnival hand, Vanilla Gorilla aka The Pondering Primate writes a fascinating post about how Pay Per Click advertising can extend into the real world. I find this whole area endlessly interesting - where the phone becomes a way of bridging the physical world with the digital - and I’m sure his vision contains many seeds of the future.

Michael Mace is one of the best bloggers about mobile around right now and his post explored the current and future for mobile applications. Michael suggests that….just read it- you won’t regret it.

Justin from MoPocket writes probably the most important post I’ve featured here, the subject of which demands a wide audience in the mainstream media. Coltan is the magic dust that’s a key component of a lot of high tech gear, from chips to mobiles. The trouble is that mining it causes death and untold misery for many, many people. Read and learn what you can do to alleviate the issue.

Ajit Jaokar seems to crop up everywhere these days and here’s no exception. Ajit looks at why a mobile phone might be a better solution than Nicolas Negroponte’s $100 laptop. He may well be right, though Negroponte had the vision and execution skills to make his idea happen already. But who knows if someone with a similar grand vision and resources can do the same with a mobile? And what a PR coup that would be.

So that’s your 10 finalists to vote for. Carlo and I have decided not to enter, as we feel that we ought to be ineligible as we organised it, but if you haven’t been here before, please feel free to look around and come back soon.

Now, before you go, make sure you vote for your favourite and the nice folks at Khosla Ventures will give the winner some cash! Complete the voting below and the winner will get $1,000 and the runner up a very respectable $500. Plus they get the prestige and frisson when their fellow Mobilists bow down in their presence muttering “We are not worthy”.

Vote here! The password is “mobilists” [thank you Michael].

And while you’re in voting mood, we’ve had very, very few votes for our monthly prizes too, you ungrateful lot! So click and vote on these too. Last chance!

November

October

September

Finally, if you’re a host of the Carnival, click here to vote for the Host of the Year. I’ve only had three votes so far and the prize is a FREE TRIP TO HELSINKI.

See you all at 3GSM, I hope.