It’s December and things are heating up. Not outside, of course; here in the State of Iowa it is 17 degrees today and there are six inches of snow on the ground. What’s heating up is the state of smartphone competition. The fire is being fueled by the success of the iPhone and Apple’s recent announcement that it will open up the platform to third-party software and release a Software Developer Kit (SDK) for the iPhone. If you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of brows knitting, all the way from Redmond, Washington.

The competition within the Windows Mobile arena is also heating up. We’re starting to see a flood of new WM 6 devices hit the market, and we review some of them in this issue. They all have two things in common: power and innovative features. AT&T’s new Tilt is a quad-band GSM phone with a slide-out keyboard and tilting display that make it a compelling messaging device. We also reviewed the first device in the i-mate Ultimate series—the 8150. It’s another GSM phone with a powerful processor and plenty of memory. It also has an FM radio receiver built into it. (We’re going to see more of that.) We also review two non-touch screen smartphones in this issue, both marketed by AT&T. The Moto Q Global is the successor to the popular Moto Q, and the Pantech Duo is a unique device with two slide-out keyboards.

The long wait is over for those who prefer a PDA-type device without phone capability. HP recently announced the iPAQ 100 and 200 series, touch screen devices running the Windows Mobile 6 Classic software. They may not have phones, but they’re packed with plenty of other features. We take a look at the new iPAQ 110 in this issue.

In spite of Apple’s SDK announcement, the Windows Mobile platform will continue to have a significant advantage over the iPhone for years to come, in terms of third-party software. We announced the winners and finalists in our annual Best Software Awards in the last issue. There are a number of articles in this issue that describe top accessories and must-have software titles for Windows Mobile devices, and several articles in the Enterprise section look at how Windows Mobile solutions help healthcare professionals

“No battle plan survives contact with the enemy!”

A Prussian General said that well over 100 years ago, and it’s still true today—in business as well as warfare. The idea is that you make your plan, but remain flexible enough to change it when your adversary doesn’t cooperate with your plan.

On behalf of mobile users everywhere, I would like to thank Apple for not cooperating with Microsoft’s plan to dominate the smartphone market. The success of the iPhone (and the potential success of Google’s new mobile software) has lit a big fire under Microsoft’s large corporate derriere. As competition in the smartphone arena heats up, Microsoft will pour more resources into Windows Mobile to make it even more capable and easier to use.

That will be good for everyone!