Apple and Google brew up battle over future of mobile devices

To judge by announcements made at the annual developer conferences of Apple and Google over the two weeks, a new battle is brewing that will have profound implications for companies that rely on mobile devices to reach their customers. There are two parts to this change. The first involves the interface on smartphones. The big tech companies are united in their view that voice activation will replace touch as the primary means of interacting with a smartphone and are pushing the technology deeper into their mobile platforms.

The second, related part of the change lies in the “back end” plumbing between apps. Apps have been a great way to deliver targeted services on mobile devices, but they suffer serious shortcomings. Most are downloaded and then quickly forgotten. Google estimates that a quarter are never opened, while only one in 20 is used after the first month.