Mike Cane asks:

Why has Microsoft found itself in third place, behind Apple and now Google, in the mobile segment of computing?

Third place? Microsoft is falling, fallling, fast. Cane pulls quotes from Wall Street Journal reporter David Bank’s book, How Bill Gates Fumbled The Future of Microsoft. In essence, Bill Gates nixed a proposal from a top engineer in 1999 to scrap Windows’ heritage in mobile devices and start over. Gates:

It’s very disappointing you feel that way. We don’t have time to start from scratch.

I would argue that Gates decisions have not fatally wounded Microsoft. Today, Microsoft is just another technology company with a long heritage, a lot of money, and not much else.

Ron McElfresh in Mac360 on the future of the Mac in an iPad, iPhone, App Store world:

For what will be an increasing number, and eventually a majority of users, the basics of personal computing can be covered by an iPad. Email. Browsing. Writing. Reading. Games. Beyond that, iPhone apps will adapt to the larger screen of the iPad and bring more typical Mac functionality to the iPad—photo manipulation, audio and video editing, even video calling.

Sascha Segan writes in PC Magazine, Apple’s iPad Could Kill The Mac.

After falling behind Apple’s Safari, Google’s Chrome, and Opera in the browser Javascript rendering wars, Mozilla is working on a new version of Firefox with a new Javascript engine. Ryan Paul in Ars:

The secret sauce that will drive Mozilla’s new JavaScript engine engine into the fast lane is some code borrowed from Apple’s WebKit project. Mozilla intends to bring together the powerful optimization techniques of TraceMonkey and the extremely efficient native code generator of Apple’s JSCore engine. The mashup will likely deliver a significant boost in Firefox’s JavaScript execution speed, making Mozilla’s browser a formidable contender in the ongoing JavaScript speed race.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

From Business Insider, Jay Yarow sums up all the little behind the scenes pieces of Apple’s lawsuit against HTC:

• Until now, smartphone makers were trying to match Apple’s user experience, and not thinking about patents. Now all the companies are checking patents before proceeding.
• Apple’s legal actions have “temporarily left competitors playing catch-up with their shoelaces tied.”
• Post-lawsuit, handset makers are wondering if Android is the best way to topple Apple.
• That’s leading to a renewed interest in partnering with Microsoft, and its new Windows Phone Series 7.

What goes around, comes around.

Apple’s patent fight against handset maker HTC has all the makings of a Gunfight At The OK Corral. Except Apple is there with guns, and poor old HTC has a pocket knife. John Paczkowski in AllThingsDigital:

A Deutsche Bank analysis of yearly patent filings by Apple (AAPL), HTC and Google (GOOG) reveals that Apple is by far the leader and HTC the laggard. Over the past few years, Apple has amassed some 3,000 patents, HTC just 58.

Ouch.

What happens when you give typing lessons to a geek wannabe? Critical thinking disappears. Christian Zibreg in Geek on Sony to stop Apple dead in its tracks with iPhone and iPad killers:

Sony won’t put up with Apple’s aggressive expansion into its own turf anymore.

Uh oh. Here it comes again. Another Apple iPhone, iPod, iPad killer. Do you mind if I dismiss Sony’s efforts to get back in the game?

Anyone dismissing Sony’s renewed attempts to slow down Apple needs a reality check. Yes, one could say that Sony lost its touch with consumers by allowing Apple to take over the music space. You could also blame them for losing ground in just about every consumer electronics category except gaming.

One could argue that Apple’s iPod touch success, in heavy use by casual gamers, is as much a game success as Sony’s recent gaming efforts. Alright. I’ll bite. Apple’s products have been kicking Sony’s products—hardware, software, online—since the iPod debuted in 2001. So, why should Apple quake in fear of Sony’s newest renewed efforts?

Sony has been around since the end of World War II, long before Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created the first personal computer in Jobs’ parents’ garage.

And that’s an argument how? How many of Sony’s executives from before Apple’s birth are still at Sony? My guess? Zero. Surely there’s more to this effort to pump up Sony’s repeatedly anemic efforts to reclaim past glory.

Sony commands vast categories, unlike the self-proclaimed consumer electronics giant Apple which only plays in phones, computers, and music.

So does Microsoft, yet their efforts to venture into portable media players, game consoles, and smart phones have met with terrible financial losses. I see more of a Sony comparison to Microsoft than to Godzilla awakening to reclaim his island from Apple.

Sony is one of the world’s largest media conglomerates and a top player in electronics, games, and entertainment. While Jobs boasted the fact that the $15.68 billion revenue in the last quarter made Apple a $50 billion company, Sony’s fiscal year 2008 revenue exceeded $78.88 billion. Although down from $90.5 billion a year earlier, it’s still way more than Apple raked in.

So, we’re to believe that Sony will rebound because revenue fell by $12-billion last year, but Sony still has more revenue than Apple? Gimme a break, Christian. Have you ever heard of profits?

While Apple’s influence in entertainment stems from the iTunes and iPod ecosystem and the fact that Jobs is the largest individual shareholder in Disney, Sony owns several movie studios and record labels. And just like Apple, Sony designs its own hardware, software, and services that work together.

Sigh. This is too easy. Chris, how well do Sony’s own hardware, software, and services actually work together. Oh. That’s right. They don’t. Maybe that has something to do with Apple’s success. Unlike Sony, Apple made things work together.

See, if anyone can take on Apple, it’s Sony.

How’s that working out so far?

Christian is writing for Geek.com. Ostensibly run by, and read by, well, you know—geeks. Where’s the math? Exactly how is Sony going topple Apple’s position? How will Sony’s new products and services line up and compare against Apple’s current line? I’m a non-geek and I want to know. Where are the iPhone and iPad killers? How will they be better than Apple’s products?

Here’s a painful truth. Market leaders are terribly difficult to unseat. Saying so doesn’t make it happen. Strutting and posturing does not bring customers in the door. Quality products and services that work well together actually matter to customers.

Here’s another painful truth. Knocking off a market leader has requirements. If Company B wishes to sell more gadgets than Company A (taking away their customers), Company B must have a much better product, or a much less expensive product, or a much easier-to-use product. Any two will help the effort. In the end, it’s math. Sony can’t do the math. Neither can Geek.com.

Geek.com + Sony - Apple = Fail.

I don’t understand why this news event wasn’t covered on Fox News. What Sarah Palin hath wrought:

Speaking unto an audience of anti-immigration advocates, global-warming deniers, and members of the Tea Party Nation, former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin gave forth utterances Monday that reportedly opened the sixth seal of the Book of the Apocalypse.

And:

“Small town folks—the folks who grow our food, run our small businesses, and teach our kids—are getting pretty riled up by President Obama’s big socialist ideas,” Palin spoke as the stage upon which she stood was rent apart by an unseen hand, opening as unto a great chasm, whose gaping void she narrowly escaped by clinging to the podium.

And finally:

Chaos and disorder then spread across hill and valley to every corner of the earth, eyewitnesses reported, and as the minions of the Antichrist prepared for their millennium of world dominion, even the teeming masses of heathens could not in their hearts deny that the final phase of Armageddon was close at hand, and that you’re darn right Joe Six-Pack pays too many taxes already.

Gene Steinberg’s TechNightOwl on Flash:

In 1998, Apple killed the floppy drive. It took a few years for the rest of the industry to catch up, but the handwriting was clearly on the wall.

It took 10 years to eliminate the floppy disk drive.

Segue to 2007. Apple introduces the iPhone without support for Flash. People complain, but iPhones sell at ever-increasing rates. Today, with some 40 million of them around the world, and the iPad on the immediate horizon, Steve Jobs has made it quite clear that Flash is the floppy drive of the 21st century. It’s time for it to go.

When? How? Soon is rather ambiguous.

Flash will be history, and Adobe is just going to have to adapt to the situation and let those other products keep them in business. It’s not as if Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign are going away any time soon, even without Flash support.

What’s the impact of no Flash on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad? Most customers don’t care. Here’s another crack in Adobe’s Flash armor. Gavin Clarke in The Register:

Start-up airline Virgin America has decided HTML is “good enough” for animating online content on its brand-new website, which went live Monday, dumping Flash.

Virgin CTO Ravi Simhambhatla:

I don’t want to cater to one hardware or one software platform one way to another, and Flash eliminates iPhone users. This year is going to be the year of the mobile [for Virgin]. When I looked at the Flash on our site, we weren’t using any Flash features except transition from one ad to another. When you use a technology, you want to use 70 to 80 per cent of the functionality.

The days of dominant, proprietary technologies on the internet are over. Goodbye Flash.

This is the season to sue. The hottest item is Apple’s lawsuit against cell phone maker HTC (on the heels of a countersuit against cell phone giant Nokia). Apple CEO Steve Jobs:

We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it.We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.

It should be noted that HTC is the largest handset maker for Windows Mobile phones, and has made a large commitment to produce Google Android phones. John Maczkowski has a list of the complete court filings in AllThingsDigital.

Named as exhibits in the litigation, a handful of Android devices including Google’s (GOOG) Nexus One, the T-Mobile G1, the HTC Hero and the Droid Eris.

Jason Mick in DailyTech:

Apple also has a pending countersuit against Nokia for similar cell phone patent infringement.  In that suit, filed in December, Apple accuses Nokia of stealing technology covered by 13 iPhone-related patents.

Besides HTC, who is the lawsuit actually aimed at? Microsoft? Or, Google? Why not attack Google head on? Mick’s summary:

Is Apple a dreamy inventor turned innocent victim, exploited by greedy handset makers like it suggests?  That’s open to debate.  But it’s clear that Apple is eager to use litigation as a tool to try to knock down obstacles to its iPhone’s dominance.

It isn’t clear that the iPhone is in a dominant position in anything except mindshare, but it is clear that Apple will go to significant effort to protect the profitable device’s future.

I think Apple is aiming at Google, not Microsoft. Windows Mobile is dead in the water. Windows Phone Series 7 won’t be a marketing reality until 2011, when Apple’s iPhone is well into version 4.0. The real target here is Google’s Android.

Colin Gibbs in GigaOm:

Today’s filing appears to be an attempt to slow Android, which has gained remarkable momentum in recent months. HTC offers the widest array of Android handsets of any manufacturer… and its Nexus One is the latest handset to be dubbed a potential “iPhone killer.” Throwing a legal hurdle at Android’s most prolific manufacturer appears to be an effort to slow Google’s roll in mobile.

Amen. If Apple can stop HTC’s Android from moving forward, what happens to other smart phone manufacturers who plan devices on Google’s fledgling but growing platform?

Robert McMillan in PC World:

Former Mozilla security chief Window Snyder has been hired by Apple. Snyder started her new job Monday, where she’s now working as a senior security product manager, according to sources familiar with the situation. Apple is the third browser-maker in the past five years that has employed Snyder, who previously had worked as a security strategist at Microsoft where she managed the company’s relationships with security consultants and had worked on the Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems.

Scary, considering all the problems Mozilla and Microsoft have had with browser security issues.

Ryan Tate in Gawker:

Apple products are made in factories that regularly employ young teenagers, constantly work people more than 60 hours per week, and falsify records to cover up their misdeeds.

The only problem with Tate’s statement? Facts. What’s his source?

That’s according to the shameless gossiping muckrakers at… uh, Apple Inc.

Apple released a Supplier Responsibility 2010 Progress Report (PDF) which disclosed three instances which violated Apple’s policies.

Apple discovered three facilities that had previously hired 15-year-old workers in countries where the minimum age for employment is 16. Across the three facilities, our auditors found records of 11 workers who had been hired prior to reaching the legal age, although the workers were no longer underage or no longer in active employment at the time of our audit.

From that, Tate castigates Apple by writing that the company regularly hires underage workers, and constantly work them beyond 60 hours a week.

Tate’s accusations put Gawker Valleywag clearly in the category of Fox News. What’s fair and balanced is really inaccurate and distorted for the sole purpose of sensationalizing issues.