I was interested to see the linked piece revealing that Apple is hiring more engineers to bring its software and services over to Android. Sound familiar? This is exactly what Microsoft has been doing for a couple of years, i.e. making sure that its core services were available to users whichever physical platform they are using. We're starting to live in a somewhat crazy, spoiled-for-choice cross platform worlds, I tell you...*

* unless you want Google services on Windows Phone, of course. That one line in the industry spiders web hasn't been properly joined up yet!

From the BetaNews article:

We already knew that Apple Music -- a service I am enjoying immensely -- was coming to Android, but could this software engineer position signal much larger plans? While we don't know for sure, I would speculate yes. After all, Android has a large market share and Apple could tap into those users to increase profits. Not to mention, offering Apple services on Google's mobile operating system could be a great way to convert Android users to iOS.

Let's read the below job summary.

Imagine what you could do here. At Apple, great ideas have a way of becoming great products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. Bring passion and dedication to your job and there's no telling what you could accomplish. We're looking for engineers to help us bring exciting new mobile products to the Android platform.

Did you catch that? Apple is looking to deliver products to Android -- plural. This clearly indicates that more than one product is planned. Other than Apple Music, what else could there be? I would speculate that iCloud storage and email could be a safe bet, as it could be easily integrated into the operating system.

All very interesting and something of a validation of Microsoft's strategy in bringing OneDrive, Outlook, Office, OneNote and even Cortana in Android (and, indeed, to iOS). I'd expect Apple to bring the likes of iMessage, Facetime and iCloud to Android at the every least. And maybe even Siri, following Microsoft's lead in bringing Cortana to Android this year.

Of course, each industry giant really wants people to be using its own native operating systems and associated hardware, but it seems that, for Apple and Microsoft at least, it's best to hedge one's bets and support everything. After all, a few million thrown at Android application development now might bring in hundreds of millions of new users in the long run.