This week we turn our eyes to the world of Smartphones, in particular the battle between giants such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Sony:

Sony comes out swinging launching a new line of gadgets
     It appears that Sony is getting into the 'smart' arena with it's launch of it's own smart phone and rolling out a device that's said to be a combination netbook, e-reader, and psp handheld.  Things are a bit slow due to some financial concerns but it's clear that Sony is aiming at the iPhone and the recently announced iPad

Verizon courting Microsoft to release 'Microsoft Phones' this Spring
     Microsoft is reaching out to cell phone giant Verizon to aide it in deploying it's own brand of smartphones.  Taking lessons learned from watching Google try to handle it's own phone deployment AND the management of the DROID phone software, Microsoft has decided to focus on development of it's own Phone application and let someone else handle the dirty work.

Apple not taking things lightly
     Don't feel sorry for Apple just yet, a recent flurry of lawsuits may slow down the march of the Droid based phones launched by Google.  Apple has filed suit against one of Google's suppliers, HTC, for copywrite and patent infringement.   The debate is over whether or not Taiwanese company HTC stole ideas from the iPhone regarding its touch-screen, gesture recognition, and power management software.

That's it for today, check back next week for more news From the Industry!