And what if this phone company opened up its databases to developers of software applications?
But there are other suits by small patent-holding companies that have aimed at developers of software applications that run on Google's Android operating system and Apple's iOS, which powers its iPhones.
One measure, in addition to market share, of how far Microsoft trails in building that ecosystem is the number of software applications developers have created for the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 operating system.
He points out that it will take time to persuade developers to create a rich range of software applications for Microsoft's operating system.
Its operating system, known as VMS (Virtual Memory System), became popular among software developers, giving VAX users a large selection of software applications.
Google will have its competitors and challenges — such as, how well it can explain the offering, and what kind of software applications are written by third-party developers.
According to an InfiniteGraph spokesperson, "developers can build any type of software application, web or mobile service around social, game and/or location-based networks, any type of process or knowledge management, or anything else which seeks to find and leverage complex relationships between objects or things".
Autodesk, the developer of software design applications, has acquired PlanPlatform, a competing company.
MySpace's highly anticipated new open-source platform is being touted as a technical breakthrough for developers of mini-software applications that let users of social networks share music, photos and video, and even throw virtual sheep at one another.
He is a current director of Fixstars Corp. http://www.fixstars.com/en/ (Tokyo Stock Exchange listing 3687.T), a Japanese developer of high-performance software applications and storage products; DataXylo https://dataxylo.com/, a predictive analytics company operating out of Cambridge, MA; and Swipesumo http://www.swipesumo.com/, a payments processing company based in India.
He wrote that Nokia found itself losing in "a war of ecosystems," including developers, software applications and games, advertising, e-commerce, search and other services.
