AP Photo

In the last quarter of 2012, people around the world were projected to buy 225 million smartphones—a 40 percent jump from the last quarter of 2011—adding up to around 700 million sold this year. This epic uptake of powerful mobile devices, plus tablets, marked the defining trend of the year and spurred the creation of new communications technologies, business models, and wireless policy changes.

This period of extraordinary growth didn’t feature any major new product breakthroughs and included an uncharacteristic stumble by Apple over the terribly flawed mapping app the company...