With 3G and wireless broadband data services increasingly more commonplace in Papua New Guinea and the region, smartphones are gaining a hold in the market.

This follows a global trend: according to technology analysts Gartner Inc, smartphone sales grew by 38.3% in 2012, while overall mobile phone sales actually fell 1.7%—the first fall since 2009.

Up until recently, your major choices for smartphones were the Apple iPhone, the Research in Motion (RIM) Blackberry, a Nokia Symbian phone, or one of the several phones which run on Google’s Linux-based Android mobile operating system, such as those from Samsung, HTC, Huawei and Motorola (which is now owned by Google).

While Android is winning the numbers game (it is estimated than some 70% of the world’s mobile devices now use this operating system), Apple appears to be the one making the profits, while Blackberry (still a popular option in PNG) and Nokia have seen their share of the global smart phone market dwindle at an alarming pace (Blackberry went from 8.8% in 2011 to just 3.5% last year, while Nokia fell from 11.6% to just 1.2%, although it was still the world’s number two manufacturer of non-smartphones.)

In 2013, both Nokia and RIM will try to make a comeback.

Smart phones retailed in PNG include

Digicel: iPhone 4, Blackberry Curve 9300, BlackBerry Bold 9780, LG Optimus Black, Nokia Lumia 800, Samsung Galaxy S111

Bemobile: Samsung Galaxy Ace, Nokia E72

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Citifon (Telikom PNG): Huawei C8650

Having ditched its own mobile operating system and partnered with Microsoft, Nokia launched the next generation of Lumia phones running on Windows 8 in November 2012. Meanwhile, RIM launched the Blackberry 10 operating system—seen by many as a make-or-break attempt to re-enter the smartphone market—this January.

‘2013 will be the year of the rise of the third ecosystem as the battle between the new BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone intensifies,’ commented Gartner Inc’s principal research analyst Anshul Gupta earlier this month. ‘As carriers and vendors feel the pressure of the strong Android’s growth, alternative operating systems such as Tizen, Firefox, Ubuntu and Jolla will try and carve out an opportunity by positioning themselves as profitable alternatives.’

Where does that leave smartphone owners? If you own one, have you made the right choice? And if you haven’t, where do you start?

If a recent study by US product assessment site Fix Ya is any guide, the happiest smartphone users by far are those who own an Apple iPhone. The study found that the Apple’s smartphones were 187% more reliable than Samsung’s and 25 times more than Motorola’s.