Neither 2007 nor 2008 are the Years of Wireless. They’re the transition years.

The significant events that shaped the U.S. wireless industry in 2007 will carry over to 2008 and most likely 2009 before the industry receives a long-time-in-coming, much-needed makeover that — hopefully — will benefit all the players: the carriers, the infrastructure providers, the handset manufacturers, the developers and, best of all, you, the consumer.

Looking  back at last100’s coverage of the U.S. wireless industry, three significant themes emerged that, taken singularly, could have qualified 2007 as the Year of Wireless: Life Remotes (the introduction of the iPhone), Disruption (Google’s game-changing involvement in an industry outside its own), and Mobile Lifestyle (mobile apps).

Yet each of these are far from complete, or even fully developed, so to say 2007 is the Year of Wireless is premature. We examine some of the events of 2007 and look forward into what promises to be an active, topsy-turvy 2008.

I’ve noticed this for a while, written about it, talked about it, and yet many handset manufacturers seem to be ignoring the obvious: Consumers want “smart”phones.

Case in point: Yesterday I spent time at a satellite R&D office of one of the largest handset manufactures in the world. A few of us were getting on an elevator as our escort talked about one of the company’s Windows Mobile smartphones.

“It’s for the business user,” he said.

“Maybe,” I answered, “but haven’t you noticed the number of average people out there carrying (RIM) BlackBerries, (Samsung) Blackjacks, and (Motorola) Q’s? These aren’t business people. They’re soccer moms and young adults.

“They’re not using smartphones to get their email from a corporate Exchange server. They’re not conducting traditional business. They’re conducting life’s business.”

In one ear, out the other.

And yet the latest numbers from Research in Motion, the ones behind the BlackBerry, bear me out and substantiate the trend.

Just in case you are a graduate of, say, Southern Missouri, Boise State, or South Florida, and can’t make it to your beloved team’s bowl game, don’t despair. Verizon Wireless has you covered.

If you subscribe to Verizon Wireless.

And if you have a V Cast enabled phone.

If you do, and you’re out Christmas shopping and not in front of the big-screen TV with chips and beer, then you can watch your team on a really tiny screen. But, hey, something is better than nothing when it comes to bowl season, right?

ESPN Mobile TV, CBS Mobile TV, and Fox Mobile will be bringing complete NCAA bowl games to Verizon Wireless V CAST TV this month — but only 24 of the “lesser” bowls, not the biggies like the Capitol One Bowl (Michigan vs. Florida), the Rose Bowl (USC vs. Illinois), and the BCS Championship game on Jan.7 between Ohio State and LSU.

AT&T, the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier, is dropping the open network ball here and is looking pretty goofy in the process.

USA Today ran an ebullient story on AT&T flinging its cellphone network wide open as if it was big, big news. “Starting immediately, AT&T customers can ditch their AT&T phones and use any wireless phone, device and software application from any maker,” USA Today wrote.

AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega piles on, “You can use any handset on our network you want. We don’t prohibit it, or even police it.”

But as we know, AT&T operates a GSM network. Anybody with an AT&T SIM card (subscriber identity module) can use any unlocked GSM-enabled phone on its network. The phone can use any operating system — Windows Mobile, Symbian, Linux.

Go into any AT&T retail store and sales people will tell you — unofficially until now — that wireless customers had the option of using devices and applications other than those offered by AT&T. As USA Today notes, AT&T sales people will let consumers “know all their options” before making the final purchase.