Is there (or was it) any Apple-Microsoft rivalry?

I was just wondering: how about writing something about computing history? I still have this plan to include a category in my blog where I’ll write short stories about computing history, things like how microprocessors appeared, how some garage-founded companies like Apple, Microsoft or Intel went on the front stage of computing in the 70′s against of that time giants as HP, IBM or XEROX … this will come later (this I promise you)
Why Apple and Microsoft? Because I can say that Apple is somehow the company of the moment and they grew together along with Microsoft, currently the biggest software developer for Apple (as per Steve Jobs words … we’ll hear them in a moment )

I thought of writing about something more interactive and challenging, than some numbers, statistics . .. and what else could it be than a dialogue between the two founders: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

I have found the All Things Digital show, hosted by the notorious WSJ columnists Walter Mosher and Kara Swisher, on youtube and I took the chance to watch it (below is embedded only the first part, there are eleven in total).

Object file formats

Recently I jus had the chance to go through a powerpoint presentation of the software development process inside the company that I am currently working. In ordr to understand the code and the project structure there are some know-how requirements, I would say:   you will need to know how is the code implemented or developped (which rules does it have to fulfill, mainly in automotive companies this has a lot to do with MISRA guidelines) how is the code structured, how are the files organized, how the binary is created, how is the code executed and some post-execution phases which are primarly related to simulation and debugging activities.

Why Symbian is far from being on top in US (North America as well)

Just take a look at the statistics below:

…well, not so impressing.

I didn’t placed a question mark in the title’s queue because the post is not only about clearly tracing the reasons of a Symbian failure in North America but more about a quick analysis (without giving some numbers or percents, if this can be possible) of  the american mobile market.

In fact I do not know whether to trust this one or another statistic, they all differ depending on who requested them, but one thing is sure: Symbian is far from top 3 of most deployed OS on smartphones.

This statistic was taken from here, but I found many other which are awarding RIM’s Blackberry as the most deployed mobile OS in US.

Let’s briefly go through the possible reasons that may prevent Symbian to reach top 3 in United States.

First of all one question should pop-up in our minds before any further comments: who is responsible for the succes of one mobile OS or another? There are two decisive factors: mobile carrier providers and device manufacturers. Here some things need to be clarified, as I already mentioned in my previous posts about Symbian, this is used by the following device manufacturers, nokia, sony-ericsson, samsung and LG, second thing is that top three mobile carrier providers are Verizon, AT&T and Sprint Nextel(in this order). As you all may know in North America it is largely spread CDMA mobile standard instead of GSM, which rules in the rest of the world.

One big drawback that Nokia didn’t manage to take care is that their smartphones, on which Symbian resides, are not enabled for CDMA networks that prevail in United States and more than this, they are not enabled for 850 and 1900 GSM bands available in US and which are not used in Europeand Asia. So, probably from a global perspective it was quite complicated for Nokia to manucature two cell phones, one for GSM standard and one for CDMA.