Back in September we were very pleased to announce that we would be the exclusive sponsor for the Smartphone Essentials Awards 2010.  Smartphone Essentials is the leading monthly publication available focusing on providing comprehensive reviews, news and advice for potential, new and established smartphone users.

These awards are the 4th to be run annually and display a variety of devices that have been chosen for various categories by both consumers and the Smartphone Essentials team. We even presented our customers with a chance to vote in our own category – Clove Customer’s Best Smartphone 2010.

The winners have now been announced and are featured in issue 108 of Smartphone Essentials, which also contains reviews of the Samsung Omnia 7, HTC 7 Trophy, HTC Desire HD, Motorola DEFY, Samsung Galaxy Tab and the just launched Huawei S7. The magazine is available for £5.99 rrp from all good newsagents and online stockists.

Clove would like to say a big thank-you to all of you that participated in the awards, voting the HTC Desire as the smartphone of the year.

Here is the complete list of winners and the runners-up!

Clove customer’s smartphone of the year

Winner – HTC Desire

It looks like our customers agreed with Smartphone Essentials readers and team and chose what was easily the most sought after device Clove has ever seen. In fact, only it’s successor, the Desire HD, has seen a similar level of orders and enquires.

“The Desire is a winner in every respect. Stylish, powerful, responsive, enjoyable to use: it’s as good as any smartphone currently available”  – Smartphone Essentials, issue 101

Best value smartphone

Winner – Orange San Francisco

“Astonishing value for money” Exclusive to the Orange network in the UK, the San Francisco packs Android 2.1, Wi-Fi, 3G, GPS and a capacitive touchscreen for just £99 PAYG

Best network (voted by Smartphone Essentials readers)

Winner – Vodafone

Runners up – 3, O2

Best accessory

Winner – 3 MiFi

Manufactured by communications pioneers Huawei and popularised by the 3 network, the Mi-Fi provides a portable hotspot for up to 5 Wi-Fi enabled devices using the data plan linked to your contract.

Best sat-nav software

Winner – CoPilot Live for Android

“Cost-effective, excellent support with updates available on a number of platforms. In  nutshell it’s a brilliant piece of software” – Brett James, www.crowdedbrain.co.uk

Best GPS Device

Winner – Garmin nüvi 3790T

“This smartphone-influenced satnav brought a touch of style to the world of PNDs” – Andy Betts, Smartphone Essentials editor.

Innovation award

Winner – Apple iPhone 4

Always looking to bring new ideas to the table and re-invent old ones, Apple continued their mighty storm on the industry with iPhone 4. Front facing camera, 1GHz processor, arguably the most detailed display on the market – everyone follows suit..

Best Android smartphone

Winner – HTC Desire

With a winning combination of a high end feature-set, perfectly balanced customisation of the Android OS via HTC Sense and a neat price point, the HTC Desire stole a lot of Apple’s limelight this year

Best business smartphone

Winner – BlackBerry Torch 9800

The highly anticipated amalgamation of classic BlackBerry styling and functionality with the modern consumer in mind rather than just the office worker has won fans the world over. BB OS6 adds flair to the device without compromising what originally made BlackBerry essential

Best consumer smartphone

Winner – Apple iPhone 4

It had to be really; even with incredibly strong competition this year from the ever growing Android camp, the iPhone still remains the device of choice for the average high street consumer. Stylish. Accessible. Functional. The Apple logo is still the most likely thing you’ll see when someone pulls a smartphone from their pocket – but for how much longer…?

Smartphone Essentials reader’s best smartphone

Winner – Samsung Galaxy i9000

Another thumbs up for Android this year came from Samsung. Looking eerily similar in design to a certain fruit based manufacturer’s device, Samsung packed in some neat extras to differentiate from the competition – namely the stunning Super AMOLED display and 5 megapixel camera

Smartphone of the year

The big one you’ve all been waiting for!

And the winner is…

HTC Desire!!

Showing the high street consumer this year there was more to the smartphone world than the iPhone, HTC struck gold with the Desire. Walk into a phone store this summer and ask about the iPhone – chances are the sales rep would have asked you if you’ve considered other options – not so in previous times.

This was perhaps primarily due to the HTC Sense customisation of the Android OS; the Desire was one of the first devices that could truly stand up to the slick, intuitive feel of Apple’s iOS. Also, we can’t overlook that the Desire also looks and feels like a premium piece of kit and is accessible to everyone.