With iOS 5.x Apple offers synchronization between your iPhone or iPad, your Mac or Windows PC, and a cloud archive of personal data, photos, and media (music, TV shows).

FORBES: Windows Phone Beats iPhone by 2015? Not Likely!

More broadly, Apple's move to put a shrunk-down version of its operating system, OS X, on the iPhone and the iPod Touch tells us that Apple sees portable, Web-friendly gizmos as a big part of its future.

FORBES: Apple's Greatest Innovations

Apple built the iPhone's touch-sensitive screen atop an OS X foundation, presaging fresh innovations to come.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Grabbing headlines were the Apple iPhone 4, RIM's BlackBerry Torch 9800, the HTC EVO 4G, and Motorola's new DROID X and DROID 2, all of which were launched last quarter.

ENGADGET: IDC: Apple passes RIM to become fourth largest mobile phone vendor globally as Nokia, LG, and Sony Ericsson struggle