Windows Mobile, the grand-dad of all smart phone Operating Systems is slated to get an update to version 7. Not to sound like I’m in the dark, but does anyone still use a Window’s powered smart phone? With Nokia dominating worldwide cell phone sales then there’s RIM, the iPhone, and various versions of Google phones out there who would want to use such outdated technology. Unless like their desktop version, Microsoft’s mobile OS will finally find it’s own? Perhaps.

There are easily five or more competing smart phone OS’s available today. Symbian, RIM, Apple, and now Google appear to be the top runners. Microsoft used to be and anyone who owned an MS Mobile powered phone will tell you all about bugs. So why persist if market preferences have moved on. The best guess is that MS has found a way to stabilize the OS and make phones powered by the device run faster than ever. One can hope.

The smart phone and the PC appear to be heading toward not so distant collision course. If MS, Apple, or Google realize this, they will be thinking not about separate OS’s, but a single unified platform. Google appears to have grasped this with the announcement of Google powered netbooks (more to follow soon). Microsoft and Apple would be smart to see this trend.

The new Windows Mobile OS may end up being their best ever, but this MS after all. They’re constantly upgrading and tweaking any of the OS’s. Own a PC with Vista? Then you know what I mean. Apple appears to have the only company releasing stable OS’s because they use intensive in-house testing and only occasionally release upgrades. The rest use massive consumer bases as their test beds (why no-one’s rebelled against this is a massive surprise on its own).

No matter how well Windows 7 Mobile performs, be assured that you’re phone will be downloading upgrades on a regular basis. It wouldn’t be a Microsoft experience otherwise. Bet on it.

Was it too much to wish for another Jesus gadget from the almighty Apple? Well perhaps it was. In the wake of the new iPad, things don’t seem all that better. Sure the sun is shining (somewhere), but the reaction out on the blogosphere isn’t quite as far reaching as the iPhone. But wait.

Looking back, the reaction to the iPhone seemed a bit mild as well, then came the next generations of the device and wow did things change. Perhaps that’s the plan from good old Apple, intro a mildly exciting device and then make it better through iterations. If it survives, the iPad will only get better and that’s worth hanging out to see more.

If you’re a fan of things techie such as your netbook or iPhone, you might have caught on to the buzz about Apple. Here’s a company that without saying a word can manage to get bloggers and tech lovers in a froth. Why not?

Apple sets the standard on style and out of the box thinking. Who would’ve imagined a platform that created the sale of additional applications to the tune of about one billion? It’s hard to imagine that Apple would’ve known they’d sell or give away so many applications for the iPhone.

Along comes the buzz.

First, I’m with all the other tech watchers out there and I believe Apple will announce something within a few days of this report. Everyone wants to hit it on the head and say, it’s a tablet computer! Thing is, tablet computers aren’t that big of a deal, but neither were mp3 players or cell phones – until Apple came along. So here they stand a chance to add some rather necessary juice to the whole tablet business. Why? It’s an under performing segment of notebook computing. According to Gartner, a tech industry analysis company, netbooks have outsold smart phones since the last quarter of 2008. The big deal here, is for Apple to find another avenue to continue to grow it’s applications business.

So what could do that? Another iPhone? The so called iSlate?

The bottom line here is that netbooks and their ilk make a decent profit in the hands of standard PC guys, but what say you put that in the hands of Apple and they convince their customers that instead of paying $200 for a smaller than average notebook PC (netbook), they instead pay $500 or so? Suddenly, a product that was probably profitable at the lower price becomes even more of a money maker.

Look at Apple product pricing, on the low end you have the iPod Touch at $200, then the iPhone at $300, and finally any of their PCs at $1400 or more. They need a middle ground. Think of a product at less than a thousand, but more than an iPhone and you arrive at that precious mid point that Apple’s ignored for ages.

Like in the past, Apple will create the buzz now and roll the product out two quarters later. Whatever they plan to announce, a touch like product would be cool. A product that uses the iPhone infrastructure would be smart. A device that rounds out their portfolio, but keeps their profitability high would more of the same genius they’re known for.

So how does this tie into Intel? Well, in December they announced a new family of Atom processors and one of which was a dual core device. According to Intel, the “D510 is for entry-level desktop PCs is a dual core Atom processor with 1meg L2 cache and a 15-watt total kit TDP including chipset. The new chips all run at 1.66GHz.” Such a low power high performing device could find no better home than in a new Apple smart book of some kind.

Whatever the news, it’s sure been fun to watch all the buzz about the new Apple device. Who knows what it’ll be, but the world will soon know. Then we’ll all sit waiting for the next buzz.

Verizon Wireless and AT&T announced today that they’d be dropping prices on their unlimited individual and family talk plans to $70 and $150 respectively. While this is a long time in coming, the fact is that their services are still over-priced. That’s right. If meager performing providers like T-Mobile and tiny Cricket Wireless can provide unlimited talk and text messaging for around $40 then you’ve got to agree that the giants do well by their customers.

It’s correct to say that the smaller competitors have a lot less over-head and can therefore assume the smaller profit margins. Even so, at a time when unemployment sits above 10% every wireless service provider is likely to have fewer employees to burden profitability. With MBA managers driving cost cutting / profit driving measures with every business on the planet, its safe to assume either Verizon or AT&T can afford to drive costs lower still.

So what’s the point of the token move? Maybe to quiet the masses. Consumers need a champion like Ralph Nader to drive down prices. Whatever happened to Ralph anyway? The hero of American consumerism got into politics and didn’t look back. Too bad for America and too bad for our wallets.

Cellular phone customers pay too much for the service. As land-line telephony goes into the history books, we should demand more. How many more services can they possibly provide? TV’s covered. Internet as well. Texting and voice are standard pieces of the package.

Here’s a message to AT&T and Verizon- Give us a real price war, not a token move.