Since Apple Inc. (AAPL) unleashed the iPhone on the world back in 2007 the company has sold millions of the device and created a massive market for iPhone apps. Developers have invested a lot of time and money in creating apps for the popular iPhone, but have been frustrated by the lack of guidelines and communication with Apple.

Developers have been begging for more insight into the approval process, and today Apple gave them what they wanted by releasing the guidelines it uses to review submitted apps.

Apple's (AAPL) new wonder device, the iPad, got off to a strong start even before this weekend's official launch date. Eager customers lined up at Apple stores Saturday to get their hands on the new and much-hyped tablet-style PC. This was due in part, no doubt, to the fact that Apple sold out of preorders of the iPad.

With a starting price of $499 to $699, estimates for iPad sales for all of 2010 range from 3 million to 6 million units. Estimates for just this weekend alone range from 300,000 to 500,000 units out the door and into the hand of early adopters and Apple fanatics.

The television, whether we like it or not, will continue to evolve into a delivery mechanism for more than just an antenna, cable connection, or satellite television. Yes, many of us have all the game consoles and even internet connections strung to those flat-screen televisions. In five years or so, that cable connection could be replaced by a WiFi antenna and your flat-panel could be a internet monitor more than anything.

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) wants to make that happen sooner rather than later. It wants Flash -- the near-universal video and audio platform for the internet -- to become the standard on many sections of the home entertainment category. This includes televisions, DVD players, and game consoles.

Every time Microsoft challenges an established tech player in the software field, I have to giggle a bit...and then start scrutinizing the software behemoth's move. Microsoft has a habit of launching "me too" products that duplicate (and sometimes, enhance) the functionality of existing tools. Why? Well, to try and make its products a de-facto standard so that it will have a recurring revenue stream for years to come.

The problem is that many of these efforts by Microsoft fail (miserably). It's the same old story: It's incredibly hard to unseat whoever has the first-mover advantage. Microsoft has it with the desktop operating system licensing model from the 1990s. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has it currently with the web search and advertising market. Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: ADBE) has it with its Macromedia tools used as web and document standards across computing platforms (PDF, Flash, etc.).

Once a company creates an ecosystem, it's very hard for someone else to come and disrupt that -- even a company as large and dominating like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).