With the exception of Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Series announcements over the past couple of months, the smartphone market hasn't really been all that interesting. We're at a transition period between SoCs. We're finally seeing a steady flow of Cortex A8 class SoCs, we'll see the first 45nm devices later this year and then next year we'll have first A9s.

Two phones stood out at last week's CTIA show in Las Vegas – Sprint's HTC EVO 4G as it's the first US WiMAX smartphone, and Samsung's Galaxy S which uses Samsung's brand new 45nm Cortex A8 SoC. These two are important, but for very different reasons. One will try to pave the path for the future of cellular networks, while the other will give us a preview of the performance in the next iPhone and Android devices.