“If people are familiar with the HBO series “Game of Thrones”
(or the original Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin that it
is based on), think of the mobile platform wars as a battle between
kings with subplots galore. In Robert Jordan’s “Wheel of Time” it
would be called Daes Dae’mar – the game of houses. The ruling
kingdoms are now Apple and Google with various niche plots broken
between Microsoft, Samsung (Bada), WebOS, Nokia (S40 Symbian), and
Research In Motion (BlackBerry). Other kingdoms exist for the
carriers and OEMs. Developers serve these kingdoms one way or
another, depending on loyalty or how lucrative it is to do so.