Smartphones are dead part III: How Microsoft, Apple and Google are preparing for the shift

[Windows Central]

There's a shift occurring in the mobile phone industry, and Microsoft, Google, and Apple each believe they have a plan to meet the evolving personal computing demands of users.
In the two previous installments of this series, we established that our current smartphones are indeed mini-tablet PCs. Our dependence upon them for activity previously reserved to the desktop PC based on their expanding dimensions have led us to this conclusion.
We also posited that this "mini-tablet" phase of personal computing is a transitory stage between the smartphone and the next step in personal mobile computing: ultra-mobile PCs.

Ultra-mobile PCs are a natural solution to declining PC market & natural evolution to plateauing smartphone market. https://t.co/n45KYJVqJo
? Jason L Ward (@JLTechWord) April 19, 2016​

We argued that Microsoft's bold and unprecedented assault on the very structure of the smartphone industry is one that seeks to erase the software, operating system, development and user experience barriers that separate the smartphone and PC environments. This approach is indeed a stark deviation from the current smartphone paradigm; but if successful it can ultimately put the power, and through Continuum, the comfort of the PC in a form-factor that has the mobility of a phone.

We also saw that Apple and Google, which have a combined 98% of the smartphone market, have committed to a course that keeps their mobile strategies in line with the "phone-focused" paradigm that evolved with the smartphone industry. A model designed to keep the PC and smartphone as distinct platforms.

In this piece, we will take a closer look at what Microsoft's rivals Google and Apple are doing to meet the increasing demands for more complex mobile personal computing. Microsoft's Unified Windows Platform, Apple's Continuity and Google's limited "merger" of Android and Chrome are each different approaches to the same challenge. Philosophical and fiscal reasons, as well as the firm's market positions and core strengths, are some of the factors affecting the courses to which each of these companies has commited.

Full story from the WindowsCentral blog...