The Phone Wars Aren't Over

[Commentary] Although Microsoft and Nokia speak of creating a "third ecosystem" and saving the world from an Apple-Google duopoly, their deal should perhaps be seen less ambitiously. They've found a way to keep busy in the mobile space, making use of their existing assets, including Nokia's industrial design and mapping prowess, and everything Microsoft has to offer, including Bing, Xbox Live and Office. Have no doubt their early efforts will be guided by the "ecosystem" meme. Have no doubt, either, that their partnership is liable to be rethought in a hurry as the marketplace and technology evolve. The lesson for the new Nokia and everyone else is an old one: Nobody knows anything, and there's no substitute for messy, wasteful competition as a finder of solutions to problems we didn't even know we needed solutions for. Whether the mobile world will settle into one nonproprietary or many proprietary ecosystems is far from decided.