As turkey bones are dropped into the recycling, and presents posted on eBay - "almost new" - it's time to take a deep breath and consider what 2010 was all about.

In the first of a series of retrospective articles during the final week of the year, PocketGamer.biz is recalling the most popular stories of the past 12 months.

10. Opinion: The ten mobile and iPhone gaming trends of GDC 2010

With GDC 2011 just around the corner, our musings about what we learned from last year's conference - ranging from 'App discovery is key' to 'Making money from free', and 'If you have a big one, get promiscuous' - demonstrated many of the big trends that would change the mobile gaming business throughout the remainder of the year.

9. Unity CEO Helgason unconcerned about new Apple terms of service

An interesting story that was never officially confirmed or concluded by Apple, nevertheless, the changes to its iOS developer terms and conditions was a hot story from April until the autumn.

Generally considered to be an attempt by Apple to freeze out Adobe, as well as restrict how thirdparty advertising and analytics companies worked, its potential impact was also felt by middleware companies such as Unity.

Thankfully, it ended with Apple effectively backing down, following potential government pressure, and a large slice of commonsense.

8. Bada games now live on Samsung Apps with Com2uS and Gameloft leading the charge

Samsung's bada smartphone OS has so far proved to be something of an enigma. Despite having the backing of its topbrass, it's been overshadowed by the success of Android-powered devices such as the Galaxy S.

And for that reason, developers have been keen to hear any news concerning how games have been performing on the device, or as in this case, which companies were supporting its launch.

7. The 10 most significant iPhone games of 2009

Another end of year staple, our rundown of the most significant iPhone games of 2009 looked at those titles that were successful - and sometimes ones that weren't - from an industry point of view.

6. Qwiboo's Vladimir Roth on why piracy is thriving on iPad

A new device from Apple combined with the age-old issue of game piracy proved to be popular. Vladimir Roth of developer Qwiboo told us about his company's experience with its game Aqua Globs HD.

5. PocketGamer.biz unveils the top 50 iPhone developers of 2009

Everyone loves neat lists, so it was no surprise that the first PG.biz rundown of what we considered to be the top 50 iPhone developers of the year caught plenty of eyeballs; something we're expecting to match with our rundown of 2010's top 50 companies.

4. Rovio Mobile on being a launch game developer for Maemo and Nokia N900

It's easy to forget that Angry Birds wasn't a massive iPhone success from the get go. Indeed, in this article, Rovio talks about how the free version it released for Nokia's N800 device was downloaded almost as many times in its launch week from the Ovi Store as in six weeks on the Apple App Store.

3. With 4 million sales in five months, Angry Birds is the fastest selling paid iPhone game to date

One of many articles marking the steadily rise of Angry Birds' sales and download figures, Rovio's physics game would end the year as a mass market cultural phenomenon, appearing as widely as the BBC's Newsnight, an Israeli TV sketch parodying the Middle East peace process, to possible film projects.

2. Microsoft is paying developers to port iPhone games to Windows Phone 7

News that leaked out during Apple's WorldWide Developers Conference, this initiative demonstrated Microsoft's determination to ensure its new mobile platform would have plenty content available at launch.

Indeed, it could be argued Microsoft was too successful in this regard. With cross platform support for Xbox Live shunted into a future OS update, there were perhaps too many ports of existing iPhone games to demonstrate WP7's unique features.

1. Native iPad apps to get dedicated section on App Store

On the day Apple starting taking pre-orders in the US for the iPad, news that it would have its own dedicated App Store for games and apps really caught the attention.

And rightly so it seems as, retrospectively, many developers listed the launch of the iPad - the first of the new wave of tablet devices - as being the most important event in mobile gaming during the year.