RIM BlackBerry Bold

Each year, Research In Motion launches a new Blackberry Bold smartphone model. And each year, it falls short. Oddly, RIM continues to bring a small display and physical keyboard to the device. With repeated BlackBerry service outages annoying enterprise users around the globe, it wasn’t a good year to be a BlackBerry owner.

The HTC Trophy is yet another Windows Phone 7-based device that got lost in the shuffle this year. Was it the device’s operating system, which disappointed consumers? Was it the device’s derivative design? Or was it because it came with only 16GB of internal memory? Probably all of those things turned off smartphone buyers.

Ever heard of the Pantech Breakout? It hardly became a household name in 2011. There’s good reason for that. The device, which is available to Verizon Wireless customers, comes with a 4-inch display but boasts a laughable design that won’t appeal to, well, anyone. The device was also criticized for poor touch-screen response. At least it has 4G and Android 2.3 Gingerbread to make owners feel a little better.

What more can be said about the HP Veer 4G that hasn’t been said already? The device was too small, was loaded with the wrong operating system-webOS-and suffered from downright terrible marketing. The smartphone didn’t have a chance from the beginning.

Does the Samsung Focus look familiar with its rounded corners and black body? Yeah, thought so. Like too many other smartphones this year, the Focus is a derivative device that does nothing to push mobile design concepts forward. Consumers, who can see through that, voted against the Windows Phone 7-based device by buying other products.

This year, Motorola offered up several outstanding devices, including the Droid RAZR. But lost amid the winners was the company’s loser on the year, the Admiral. The Admiral, which is based on Android, is designed to coax BlackBerry users to Google’s operating system by offering a physical QWERTY keyboard. The problem was that BlackBerry users who like the BlackBerry’s physical keyboard don’t want to buy a copycat product from another company.

The LG Enlighten found itself in No Man’s Land this year. The device is designed for the midrange smartphone market and includes a slide-out keyboard, 3G Mobile Hotspot capability and more. However, as a midrange device, it was ignored by the majority of consumers who want all-touch screen functionality all the time.

Nokia had a difficult 2011. At the beginning of the year, the company still tried to hold on to Symbian. But before long, it knew it was over and decided to switch to Windows Phone 7. Those devices are coming out now. But the Nokia E7 was one of the last devices to feature Symbian. Poor thing-no one wants Symbian anymore, and the E7’s poor performance seemed to make that abundantly clear.

The Google Nexus S 4G is notable for being the first device on store shelves to support the search giant’s Google Wallet service. Other than that, however, there isn’t much to be excited about with the Nexus S 4G. It’s running on Sprint’s network. Its design isn’t unique. And its overall performance isn’t worth writing home about.

When Sony Ericsson announced the Xperia Play, many people were excited by the gaming possibilities it would deliver. However, when the device finally launched, it was a disappointment. The smartphone was supposed to be the new hallmark device for Sony Ericsson. Instead, it’s something many folks would like to forget.