Samsung’s Galaxy S II named best smartphone in the world.

This year’s Mobile World Congress is now behind us. And it was quite a show. Android phones got a bump to four cores, camera phones got a bump to 41 megapixels, and reporters and bloggers were run ragged as the wireless industry gave us a glimpse at the stars of their respective portfolios for the first half of 2012. The highlight of the show for us was definitely Microsoft taking the wraps off its Windows 8 Consumer Preview, and our favorite smartphones introduced at the show were HTC’s ultra-sleek One X and its ultra-slim One S. But Mobile World Congress isn’t all about looking forward, it’s also about looking back at some of the mobile technology that has changed our lives in recent history. With that in mind, the GSMA handed out its Global Mobile Awards for 2012 earlier this week. Read on for more.

A number of top companies received honors at this year’s awards. Nokia’s C3-00 won best feature phone of the year, Apple’s iPad 2 won best mobile tablet, Google Maps for Android was named best consumer mobile service, WhatsApp was named best overall mobile app of the year and Rovio’s Angry Birds Rio was named best mobile app for consumers.

Top honors, however, went to Samsung this year as the South Korea-based consumer electronics giant took home awards for best device manufacturer of the year and for best smartphone thanks to its wildly popularGalaxy S II series of handsets.

“We are pleased to receive this honor from GSMA and believe that it’s a testament to Samsung’s innovation, quality products, and attention to consumer preferences,” Samsung’s mobile boss JK Shin said in response to the awards. “We sold over 97 million smartphones in 2011, demonstrating that this is the right approach.”

The Galaxy S II was undoubtedly an iconic smartphone that sent Samsung’s smartphone business soaring in 2011, but the company is hardly done leading the pack. The world’s top Android vendor is expected to launch its next-generation Galaxy S III smartphone in April and according to an exclusive report from BGR earlier this week, Samsung has no plans to slow down in 2012.