This year has seen more than its share of big wireless stories. 2006 will be remembered as a year where wireless vendors such as Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) and Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) got wholeheartedly into the big money M&A games that had largely been the preserve of carriers in the previous year. BlackBerry 's legal disputes kept users on their toes. While much-feted technologies such as WiMax and 802.11n provided little more than heat for the hype machine.

Here is Unstrung's rundown of the stories that mattered over the last twelve months:

The Big Buy-Up: Cash-rich Motorola was a wireless sugar daddy for startups and established firms in 2006. A trend that shows no signs of stopping in 2007. The firm made two major wireless acquisitions in 2006. It announced plans to buy number two enterprise WiFi player Symbol Technologies Inc. (NYSE: SBL) for $3.9 billion and well-respected wireless email player Good Technology Inc. for an undisclosed sum. Both acquisitions are due to close soon. Furthermore, the massive vendor could be far from finished with its wireless buyouts, Motorola had $10.5 billion in cash reserves on its books at the end of the third quarter. (See Motorola Gets Good, What Will Moto Buy Next?, and Motorola Confirms Symbol Buyout.)

Get the full story at Unstrung. — Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung