Now here's an interesting piece from Cult of Mac last week. Looking at CES, the site is smitten with the Nokia Lumia 900. While they're not ready to trade in their Apple handsets, they are happy that the iPhone finally has a worthy competitor to be measured against. " Like Steve Jobs said, 'A-players want to play with other A-players.'"

...we just think that Nokia and Stephen Elop “get” what the experience of using technology should be about. Technology isn’t about specs. Of course specs are important, but only the truly nerdy people of the world really care about specs. Customers want a phone that is fast, easy to use, and stylish... Nokia gets it. Apple gets it. But Google still hasn’t caught on yet. The majority of the world just wants technology to enhance their lives... If none of your fancy additions work smoothly together to create something bigger than their individual parts, then the extra specs are just floating clouds of fluff that get in the way of having fun and enjoying your phone.

A lot of the drive that Windows Phone is gathering is in part down to the decision to go for a complete reworking of the smartphone offering after Windows Mobile, allowing Microsoft and its hardware partners to take a fresh approach to the UI and how people use their smartphones. By doing that, they have come to the party quite late (too late, some people think).

So, a Moriarty to a Holmes, an Abbot to a Costello, and an Ant to a Dec, there's a certain merit in the "friendly enemies" of Apple and Microsoft back at the top of the table again with two competing visions. Of course Google is no OS/2, so it's a far more fraught environment, but if everyone lifts their game there is a winner.

The consumer.