The GSMA has announced the winners of the 17th Annual Global Mobile Awards which took place yesterday at Mobile World Congress. The top mobile products and services were showcased and there was even some entertainment with comedian/songwriter Tim Minchine as the host. Categories ranged from Best Consumer Mobile Service to Best Mobile Innovation for Publishing and while we love hearing about innovative products, it’s really the hardware categories that had us talking.

This year, Samsung stepped up in a big way and even took the top spot with their Galaxy II winning Best Smartphone (a title previously held by Apple’s iPhone 4). The Samsung Galaxy II may not be the device most users would call the “best,” — especially with the handsets out now — but it certainly made a huge impact globally over the past year. Samsung also won Device Manufacturer of the Year which didn’t surprise us one bit. These wins are a testament to just how far Android handsets have progressed over the past year. Although Android and Samsung prevailed in the smartphone market, the tablet market continues to be dominated by Apple.

The Apple iPad 2 was the clear winner in the tablet category (which started this year) and took the title as Best Mobile Tablet with judges calling it:

“A unanimous choice for a tablet that has defined the market and dominated sales.”

Android tablets are just starting to scrape market share away from Apple and will be interesting to see how future quad-core Tegra 3 Android tablets stack up against the upcoming iPad 3.

Other categories and winners are available at the GSMA site so if you’re interested in hearing how Rovio won Best Mobile App — again, hit up the source link below.

• SourceGSMA