Apple and Microsoft share an enemy in Google, which has the most popular cellphone operating system in Android but does not have a strong presence in software for computers.
Eric E. Schmidt's conference call last week about Google's new cellphone operating system, Android, was the opposite of a showy Steve Jobs keynote.
They orchestrated a string of acquisitions of companies with mobile-related technology, including Android, maker of a cellphone operating system; GrandCentral, a service for making calls that can bypass telephone lines; and AdMob, an advertising network for mobile applications.
In Google's letter to the commission, it said it did not screen applications for its Android cellphone operating system, but that it did reject apps that contained pornography or other objectionable material.
Perhaps the best part of this rumor is the projects code-name – "Pink" – which "is aiming to produce a phone that extends the tech giant's Windows Mobile cellphone operating system, adding new software capabilities".
"We are seeing the emergence of a fourth screen," said Jerry Panagrossi, vice president for operations at Symbian, a developer of advanced cellphone operating systems, citing a historical progression of "movie, television, computer and now the smart-phone screen".
Nokia and Microsoft have been rivals for years in cellphone operating systems, with Nokia adopting Symbian software and shunning Windows Mobile.
Instead, with its share of the market for cellphone operating systems declining, Microsoft finds itself struggling to be the innovator rather than an also-ran mimicking Apple and Google.
Cellphone operating systems are hard.
The two methods by which your phone can snitch about your whereabouts correspond to the divide between two of the most prevalent cellphone operating systems: Apple's iOS and Google's Android.
