This week marked another seminal product introduction in the growing land of superphones: Steve Jobs introduced the next generation iPhone 4 at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference. While the phone packed the usual bevy of eyebrow raising features, some of the wind may have been taken out of Apple’s sails since the company had to make due without the usual element of surprise, thanks to the iPhone prototype that was lost in a bar earlier this year and eventually found and unveiled by Gawker Media’s tech blog Gizmodo, for all the world to see.

The act of sharing is closely linked to the pleasure of discovery, and the blissful marriage encourages innovation. The “gang of four” – namely Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google, understand the importance of creating meaning in their products or services by building a community first and foremost. What gets people talking, bodies moving, and hearts racing? Are there any features we can integrate to make the online experience more personal?

2010, the year that brought us the iPad, augmented reality ads, the attack of Groupon and the group buying clones and the rise of location-based social networks, has come to a close. Winners like Apple and Facebook may look upon last year fondly given their dominant respective business performances whereas much of the rest of America may just be breathing a sigh of relief because the fragile fed-fueled economic recovery did not collapse.

Not long ago, the media, tech experts and general public were buzzing about the fascinating fight in the e-book reader market, where Kindle and Nook were battling for the leadership of the new way of reading. However, the fight was not bloody and thus not that spectacular. Nevertheless, less than a year later we are trying to occupy the front row of the new exhilarating battle of tablets, which promises to be much more fierce.