Windows 10

Many consumers are still gnashing their teeth about Windows 8, but this week Microsoft unveiled Windows 10 – much muttering about the Start button, but the big deal here is turning Windows into one big platform effectively for everything from Xbox to mobile phones, laptops to tablets. In that sense, Windows is well ahead of iOS or Android, although by the time 10 comes out both will surely have made strides to catch up.

The theme, however, comes back to the increasingly important war of platforms, and Microsoft of all the main players seems to be confused. Apple at least knows where it stands – just try visiting icloud.com on an Android browser – but Microsoft is pursuing a genuinely open strategy by making Office apps for the iPad. In reality that’s its only option with so many people using rivals products from Google and Apple, but it highlights the dilemma: try to make Windows the dominant platform and hope people remain loyal despite the debacle of Windows 8, or try to become a maker of world-class apps and services.

The future is unclear for all three players, Google, Apple and Microsoft, but what is obvious is that there isn’t room for three of them, especially as the web itself will increasingly become the platform for everything. With that in mind, it’s tempting to say that just as Nokia declined, so too must at least one of the trio. But it could, in truth, be any of them or all three.