Over the past few years, everyone’s been waiting for either Apple or Android to emerge as the dominating force in the smartphone market. It may not be entirely fair, since the iPhone is one phone by one company on one network and Android is used in a whole kiosk worth of phones made by a variety of manufacturers and carried on the gamut of major networks, but that’s clearly how the battle has been framed.

According to an article today on MSNBC that cites a recent report by research firm IDC, neither one of these formidable players may come out as a market leader. In fact, no one will. The report speculates that the market will be divided among five key players over the next five years: Apple, Google, RIM , Microsoft and Nokia, or, more specifically, iOS, Android, Blackberry OS, Windows Phone/Mobile and Symbian.

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Here’s something that no one on your holiday shopping list needs in the slightest: a gigantic,  aluminum phone by an A/V company notorious for ultra-expensive, high-end offerings. You’re probably thinking ‘that SOB is so giant it will never fit in my pocket’. But luckily, it doesn’t have to–it’s a cordless phone meant to tap into your landline. You know that ugly little jack in the corner of the room that hasn’t been functional for five years or so. Time to get it juiced back up so you can take advantage of this inexplicable waste of Bang and Olufsen’s time. Even knowing it’s a cordless, it’s still outlandishly giant and awkward.

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Rumor is that we may see Google join the crowded smartphone market with an Android phone all its own. And it may be coming this year. According to a report by Street.com, everyone’s favorite Internet giant is currently working with a smartphone manufacturer on designing a Google-branded phone. The phone is expected to hit the market later this year and will be sold directly through retailers, not through service providers. The report cites source Ashok Kumar, an analyst who apparently has discussed the upcoming phone with Google’s hardware partners.

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Remember the Blackberry Storm? About a year ago, the exciting new touchscreen release was preparing to go head-to-head with the iPhone. Fast forward to the present, and the iPhone remains at the top of its game, while the Storm has disappeared from the spotlight due to a variety of complaints with its operation and interface. Storm 2 rumors have been circulating for months, and yesterday, the New York Times surprised the tech world by stating that the phone will be released this week. The article focused more on Blackberry manufacturer R.I.M, and new details on the Storm 2 were scarce, but the Times did include this statement: “Among its many improvements, the new phone gives the user the sensation of pushing a physical button when pressing a number on the glass touch screen.” This is odd, given that that very feature was one of the selling points of the original Storm.

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Those who have been seeking new ways to edit pictures directly on their iPhone prior to uploading them to various websites will be happy to note that Adobe has released Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone. The new app will offer iPhone and iPod Touch users all kinds of gesture-based editing tools–from the basic flip, rotate and crop to more subtle image editing such as tint control and filters and effects. Now those poor-quality iPhone-snapped images can look that much more like real photography. And the Photoshop app is available now for free at the App Store, so you’ve got nothing to lose.

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In news that’s not all that surprising, the iPhone has edged out the competition and taken the top spot in a survey on smartphone customer satisfaction. The JD Power survey was presented to 3,221 smartphone owners between January and June 2009. The participants used their phones for fewer than two years. Apple scored 811 points while LG came in second with 776. RIM Blackberry rounded out the top three with a score of 759. The survey required that customers rate their phones on a variety of specific qualities such as ease of use, OS, design and features.

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Dell’s reportedly going to show up a little bit late to the Android party with its Mini 3i, which has already debuted in China. Still, it’s better late than never, especially for a phone that looks kind of like an iPhone, but rounder and slimmer. A tipster tells CrunchGear that the phone feels “cheap and plasticky, like the [Palm] Pre,” but he expects Dell to upgrade the phone for its import to America.

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Coordinating with the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5, HTC has made the next flagship of its phone line–the HD2–official. This new iPhone competitor provides a notable upgrade to WinMo fans in that it is the first Windows Mobile phone to use a capacitive, multi-touch interface and it allows for iPhone-like functionality such as support of pinches, flicks and other commands. The impressive 4.3-inch screen provides a beautiful template to work on while HTC’s Sense UI gives an intuitive, customizable experience to users. The phone is the first non-Android offering from HTC to feature Sense.

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The latest WinMo phone preparing to strut its stuff down the proverbial catwalk at CTIA this week is the Kempler & Strauss Billionair 6. The new phone fills the lofty shoes created by its impression-making moniker by providing users with both touchscreen and trackball navigation. The backlit trackball and slidetouch interface combine to allow users to quickly and efficiently navigate multiple screens. The 3G HSPA phone uses a powerful 624 MHz ARM processor to create a fast, seamless user experience and includes a 2.8-inch QVGA display.

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