In the fall of 2005, SearchMobileComputing.com invited companies in the mobile/wireless market to nominate their products for the 2005 Products of the Year awards. To be eligible for consideration, a product had to have been introduced or significantly upgraded between Oct. 1, 2004, and Sept. 30, 2005. For previously available products, the upgrade must have incorporated major new features that were designed to meet new or evolving needs in the marketplace. Not all companies invited to participate submitted nominations.

We looked at products in four categories -- mobile security, mobile management, PDAs and smartphones, and laptops, tablet PCs and notebooks. Each category had its own set of judges, who rated the products in six categories -- innovation, performance, ease of integration into environment, ease of use and manageability, functionality and value. We then tallied the judges ratings separately, and aggregated them with those of the other judges to come up with a single numerical score.