Droid & iPhone: Platform vs. Integration

A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with Andrew Lees, senior vice-president for Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business unit to talk about Windows Mobile and the future of smartphones. Lees was passionate in defending the Microsoft approach, where the company supplies the software and general specifications, then leaves it to the handset makers to design and build the phones.

“People want choice,” Lees said, defending Windows Mobile against my assertion that the success of both Apple’s iPhone and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry was due to the fact that they are vertically integrated products, controlled from top to bottom by a single company. “Part of what we bring is the ability to have a stylus, a keyboard, or a touchscreen.”

The introduction of version 2.0 of Google’s Android software on the Motorola/Verizon Droid this week raises the possibility that Lees may be philosophically correct, but he may be riding the wrong horse. The arrival of a much more mature Android means we are going to see a fair fight for the future of smartphones between the models of vertical integration and open platforms.