In announcing its shift to metered pricing for mobile data in place of its $30 unlimited plan Wednesday, AT&T said the move would "make it more affordable for more people to enjoy the benefits of the mobile Internet." In the near-term, perhaps. But as AT&T and the other major U.S. carriers ready next-generation networks that can deliver data much faster and allow customers to consume much more data than they can now, the new tiered plans may not look as attractive.

Last year the term "summer of smartphones" began surfacing to describe the unprecedented wave of smartphones and mobile app stores launching from companies including Apple, HTC, Palm and Nokia. Comparisons were also made to the seasonal release of blockbuster summer movies as new smartphone debuts became media-fueled events in their own right, with devoted fans and early adopters lining up outside stores to be among the first to get their hands on hot phones. A year later, some of those big device premieres turned out to be duds -- but smartphones sales are still surging, and a new line-up of …