It is no secret at this point, that Apple is about to astound us with their version of a netbook / e-reader / tablet computer / big screen telephone / and portable video delivery system. It is also no secret that Google is interested in the same market, but rather than go it alone, Google is working with a number of hardware vendors (mainly HTC at this point), to market hardware using their Android portable operating system.

Apple should be worried because Google has already beat them at the browser game, Chrome is now in wider use than Safari. It may be a mute point though, because Apple has not really worked up a sweat promoting the Safari browser to non-Apple users. Nevertheless Google are probably feeling very confident right now and ready to go to battle for the big prize.

The goal for both Apple and Google this year, is actually not who can produce and sell the most mobile communications and entertainment device, it is who can get the most subscribers signed up to their Cloud System. Which operating system they use for the tablet computers, portable OS, full OS, or a new tablet specific OS, is not really important. What is important is that users are pointed at and subscribing to services on their Cloud System for all (or at least almost all) their computing, storage and data acquisition needs.

So who will win? Apple, Google, or does Microsoft still have a chance to make this a three way race?