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We've examined which companies will be gunning for each other in 2009 and named the big products that will be on the front line, fighting for supremacy in the year ahead.

1.Android vs iPhone v Windows Mobile v Symbian
Apple has waded into the smartphone fray and transformed the way we interact with these devices - the fiddly keyboard has been despatched in favour of an innovative touchscreen.

We can't wait to see how the competition responds. Two new releases of Windows Mobile are scheduled - the incremental update of 6.5 and a major revision, version 7, in the latter half of 2009.

Android looks promising, as we noted in our review of the T-Mobile G1 but needs support from better hardware before it can really begin to challenge.

Symbian remains the world's leading smartphone OS, but is badly in need of a refresh. It will be interesting to see if any of these familiar names can come up with something as user-friendly as Apple's iPhone OS in the coming year.

2. Larrabee vs CUDA
Graphics cards have always been gaming territory, but 2009 could see people realising that the GPU is just as good at medical research as it is at blasting through Far Cry 2 or Crysis.

GPGPU technology embraces the idea that the hefty processing power in a modern graphics card can contribute to tasks other than gaming.

It's an idea that's already been explored through applications such as Folding@Home and SETI - organisations that use parallel computing power to conduct large-scale experiments, such as medical research or searching for extra-terrestrial life.

While these have been well-known in IT circles for several years, mainstream adoption of GPGPU techniques - and increasingly powerful graphics cards - mean that it could gain mainstream popularity in 2009.

3.Internet Explorer 8 v Firefox v Chrome
Google's surprise release of Chrome, its stripped-back browser with OS pretensions, caught many by surprise - not least Mozilla, which relies on Google cash to keep Firefox afloat.

Chrome's birth hasn't been without complications. Market share has hit a plateau since the initial release hype, with Google rushing the product out of beta to supposedly drive consumer confidence.

The other big browsers are fighting back, too: Internet Explorer 8 is looking like the most competent browser we've seen from Microsoft in years, and Firefox 3.1 is currently sitting in beta, with a faster JavaScript engine purring away.

Can Google apply brute force or brilliant new features to persuade people to take-up its browser? We're about to find out.

4. Core i7 v Phenom II
AMD and Intel have waded into the latest round of CPU releases with vastly different strategies. Whereas the top-end Core i7 chips cost a huge amount of money but provide a phenomenal level of performance, AMD has tried to balance speed with price - as it's done so successfully with the latest generation of Radeon graphics cards.

It's poised to be a fascinating contest: the Phenom II-920 is expected to be as quick as the Core i7-920, and several sites are already offering pre-orders, where the AMD chip is listed as being slightly cheaper at £180, compared to £198 for the Core i7.

With buyers increasingly looking for products that offer value before pure performance, this could be a battle worth getting the popcorn for.

5.Windows 7 v Mac OS
Both Microsoft and Apple are gearing up for the release of new operating systems in 2009. Redmond will almost unleash the final build of Windows 7 by late summer, whereas Apple has scheduled a tentative release date of June for version

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10.6 of OS X, codenamed Snow Leopard.

The number of disappointed Vista users switching to Apple's products has been widely publicised, but our early impressions of Windows 7 suggest that it's a fast, sleek and more user-friendly OS, with many of the most annoying features - such as the intrusive User Account Control - now removed.

Whether it's enough to tempt Apple users back to Microsoft after Vista's chilly reception is open to debate - and one that we'll be keenly following in the coming year.

6.Laptops v Desktops
Laptops began to outsell desktops for the first time ever at the end of 2008. We see no evidence that this trend will reverse in the first few months of 2009, especially given the proliferation of netbooks and the global recession.

Firms such as Apple, Acer, HP and Asus are benefiting from both sales of luxurious models and super-cheap netbooks. With powerful new desktop processors from both AMD and Intel arriving in early 2009, we'll be intrigued to see if desktop machines can claw back any of the lost ground.

7. IT v Credit Crunch
The recession has meant that companies and customers have been tightening their belts around the world, and the IT industry is no exception. Thousands of Sony employees have been made redundant, Samsung has been cutting its performance targets, and we've heard a multitude of stories about British system builders struggling to keep their heads above water.

As the financial crisis deepens, we foresee more redundancies, further revisions of sales targets and, unfortunately, businesses going bankrupt all over the world.

8. DRM v Common sense
DRM has long been a plague for computer users. While advocates argue that it's there to protect the rights of artists, designers and publishers, the web is full of DRM-related horror stories: legitimate customers accidentally wiping their iPods after using them on different computers, for instance, or games refusing to work because they've been registered more times than the publisher deems necessary.

It seems, though, as if the tide is beginning to turn. Play.com, Amazon and Limewire have all introduced DRM-free music download services, and retail versions of the recently released PC version of Prince of Persia, published by Ubisoft, don't have any DRM at all.

It's a sign customers are fed up with their legitimately purchased media being locked down with numerous, draconian measures. We're hoping for a less restrictive 2009 - but are quietly cautious as to how the big corporations will, inevitably, respond.

9.Fixed line v mobile broadband
The rising popularity of mobile broadband is down to two simple reasons: tariffs can now be had for as little as £10 a month, and connections are now quick enough to handle navigating the web and more complex tasks, such as watching video on the BBC iPlayer. Are the days of landline connections numbered?

It's never really been a conceivable choice before, but if you only surf the web, check emails and download the odd photo - without undertaking tasks that require huge amounts of bandwidth, such as online gaming - then a mobile connection could be tempting. There's also the added bonus of being able to take it wherever you go.

We're looking forward to seeing how both sides of this particular battle respond in 2009.

10. Offline v online apps
The inevitable passage of time means that it's now possible to conduct most of your computer activities using online-only applications. For instance, Gmail instead of Outlook, Google Docs instead of Microsoft Office and Photoshop Express instead of the full-fat version.

Of course, you do give up plenty of functionality in exchange for the convenience. It's debatable, though, whether people will miss the majority of tools that sate the desires of professional users. For many people, the basic functions of online apps are more than capable. The recession may well encourage more people to hunt out the free alternatives.