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Now we understand what Nokia's CEO meant when he said the company had to "jump into the icy seas" in order to save itself. The "icy seas" in question has materialized as Microsoft's OS, It is ironical that it was Nokia that originally led the main handset makers away from Microsoft  and into the Symbian consortium for fear of becoming commoditized hardware makers. Now, years later, the company has been forced to make a dramatic U-turn. Why didn't Nokia choose Android? Probably because both Nokia and telcos - who are its main customers - fear a Google monopoly (or a Google-Apple duopoly) and don't feel threatened by a now weakened Microsoft. Moreover, the two companies are somewhat complementary, with Nokia having scale but lacking a competitive OS, and the opposite for Microsoft. But critics might wonder whether - in this fierce competition between ecosystems - it is wise to pick a weaker ally for fear of intra-ecosystem competition, and risk losing the battle between ecosystems. Moreover, Nokia will have to pay Microsoft for OS licences and not have exclusive rights, so that the risk of becoming commoditized is for real. Finally, the announcement was made today, but new products will not be ready for months (how different from Apple's approach to announcements!). In the meanwhile, Nokia's market share is likely to plunge significantly. A real jump in the icy seas  

Motorola is a bit of a maverick in the field of smartphones. Originally a supporter of Symbian, it then switched sides for Microsoft and is now firmly grounded in the Google Android camp. The problem is that it is not clear whether dominance in the industry will depend on the device, the operating system, or in the wider ecosystem (e.g. apps and services) that rotates around it, or in the integration between the three (provided that integration is an issue at all).

Tablet PCs have been recently been proposed as the big innovation in the PC arena. But the problem - as usual - is going beyond technology and into usability. Will people really accept something that is larger and more expensive than a handheld, smaller than a notebook, with a touchscreen but no keyboard? Will the devices be attractive per se, or will it be necessary to integrate them into a wider ecosystem? Of course, past experience tells us this last question suggests different potential winners (the PC camp in the former case, Apple in the latter).

Apple's iPad has opened up yet another element of uncertainty on the future "dominant" IT device. In addition, given that a major application of the iPad is likely to be book-reading, uncertainty is there concerning file and DRM formats for e-book. What will the prevailing strategy be? Proprietary formats, or open formats with proprietary DRM systems, or completely open formats? The problem of course is portability of content, which may or may not be valued by consumers. However, given that I currently can lend a book to a friend, what will happen when a Kindle-using friend will want to borrow my iPad-based novel?

Nokia has decided to place free mapping and navigation services on its smartphones. A reaction to Google's decision to do the same on Android-powered devices and a big blow to makers of dedicated devices such as Tomtom and Garmin. But this also implies a different business model that has yet to be defined. In the meanwhile, it certainly is good news for customers.

The digital generation loves social networking, but still there is no way to ensure that social networks are easy to use together. Especially because there are too many. Microsoft is playing the card "Kin", formerly known as Project Pink. Kin's been developed in collaboration with some important partners like Vodafone, Sharp, in order to be more competitive and to create a new smartphone platform., and also with Verizon, to guarantee a huge distribution for the product, in contrast with Google's strategy. The aim of the first pair of mobile Kin (in the future Microsoft could add other devices to this first generation platform) is not to simplify but to amplify the social users life and has got the difficult task of attracting the young, future consumers, within the Microsoft ecosystem, rather than in those created by Google and Apple.