Eyebrows were raised in the smartphone business today when, following their unveiling of the Windows 7 Phone platform at MWC2010 recently, Microsoft launched an Android app. "Tag" is a barcode reading app which they also launched on the iPhone, J2ME, Blackberry and Symbian S60 handsets. On the face of it this is hardly revolutionary, but the trend to have a single app for all popular platforms may be what's behind this move. The barcodes Tag can recognise though are different - they are color, and so hold much more data than the usual black and white (even 2D) ones.

At the Mobile World Congress today Adobe is to demonstrate AIR running on the Motorola Droid.  This is pretty significant news as it's based on Flash 10.1, and thousands of apps (think BBC iPlayer etc) have been waiting for just this. AIR is far more than flash, however. As a complete runtime environment it allows apps outside the browser with their own SQL database, UI and hardware support such as multi-touch, acellerometer sensors and GPS. Developer support is promised too, with SDK's from both handset ODM's and carriers expected. Web apps outside the browser promise to further strengthen the Android corporate penetration, as the environment can be controlled to a much higher degree than regular apps.

The first: You made the right choice

Android has taken the mobile industry by the scruff of the neck and blown it wide open.

It's forced some big established players to go open. It's forcing the rest to the wall. Open is free. Open is what manufacturers want - without them you've no handset. Open is what carriers want so they can customise their products - without them your handset goes nowhere. The noughties will be looked back on as the decade which saw open mobile begin: the 10's will be when it dominates.