There's an interesting idea, currently doing the rounds, which says that soon the mobile handset industry will become like the PC industry of today: a horizontal industry based on standard platforms, where vendors specialise in particular tasks rather than trying to do everything themselves. More cynically, it could become an industry where manufacturers assemble others' technologies for razor-thin profits and the platform owners make all the money. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this idea is equated with a wholesale takeover of the handset market by Microsoft - in an extension to its PC platform ownership. Certainly the handset market will become more horizontal but there are many reasons why history will not repeat itself in Microsoft's favour.
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