If we look back to the days of the search engine revolution, Google (GOOG) built not only the most powerful search engine, but a business model based on that search engine that has made the company No. 1 in that category.

The company is on the move again -- and Google's Android is leading the way. Google sees the next leg of the Internet revolution in the smart phone, tablet and e-reader market -- and there's already a fierce battle raging. Google's Android is making inroads into the iPhone turf. How deep is the penetration? Singapore research firm Canalys said, "Google shipped twice as many devices as Apple's iPhone. in the fourth quarter," capturing 33% of shipments, up from 8.7% a year ago.

So, I'm sitting here in front of my screen, watching the market action. Kind of a boring day, at least for my portfolio. In particular, one of my holdings, Microsoft (MSFT), is acting in a very boring manner. I was hoping to see some interest on the part of Wall Street in that name today following the stock's recent weakness, but alas, there is none to be had. At the time of this writing, shares are down fractionally to $27.15.

Investors have been digesting the news concerning the deal between the maker of Windows and Nokia (NOK). The plan is to generate some competition in the smartphone business. Success with this initiative would be nice for shareholders of both companies.

A couple of days ago, Connie Madon reported here that Verizon (VZ) had finally landed Apple's (APPL) iPhone 4. Today the communications firm started to introduce details about the release. The first question to answer is when the iPhone will be released - which is February 10 according to Verizon's Internet site. MarketWatch reported that the iPhone 4 will be available for pre-order on February 3.

The popular smartphone will cost $199 for the 16GB version and $99 for the 32GB version. These are the same price points for the device on the AT&T (T) network. One difference between the carrier's versions is that the Verizon version will also work as a wi-fi hotspot (with credit to the Engadget blog's live coverage of the event). This mobile hotspot will be able to support up to five different devices.

Intel (INTC) has a problem. It's the leader in PC chips, but it hasn't done nearly as well in the mobile devices market . To remedy this, it just bought the Wireless Solutions Business of Infineon for $1.4 billion.

Intel said that "The acquisition expands [its] current Wi-Fi and 4G WiMAX offerings to include Infineon's 3G capabilities and supports Intel's plans to accelerate LTE. The acquired technology will be used in Intel® Core processor-based laptops, and myriad of Intel® Atom™ processor-based devices, including smartphones, netbooks, tablets and embedded computers."

Over the years, Dell (DELL) has seen a relentless attack on its PC business. Then again, in the tech industry, it is common for high fliers to wind-up in the dust bin of history. Unfortunately, Dell seems to be moving in this direction -- and shareholders have suffered mightily.

Traditionally, Dell's main threats have come from major PC operators like HP (HPQ) and Lenovo. But perhaps Apple (AAPL) is the biggest threat now. After all, the company's Mac business is gaining momentum and the iPad has become a runaway top seller.

I found a rather interesting article on Bloomberg, one discussing the potential of smartphones to replace credit cards. Supposedly, both AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ), and perhaps T-Mobile, may work with Discover Financial Services (DFS) and Barclays (BCS) in Atlanta and three other cities to test a system allowing consumers to pay with the "wave of a smartphone." This move would be the largest effort to attempt mobile payments in America and could serve to cut into credit card use.

Crone Consulting, a credit card consultant, noted that such a move could be a "game-changer" as far as credit cards are concerned. Think of how much such a move could cut into the market share for credit cards. According to the article, Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA) handled 82% of U.S. consumer spending a year ago (that is $2.45 trillion). Now imagine that smartphone users have the ability to simply pass their phone over a reader in order to pay for their purchases.

Tech firm Research in Motion (RIMM) has advanced nearly 3% this morning, thanks mainly to its schedule. The company has scheduled an event for next Tuesday in New York City and -- although no details have been released -- many investors are jumping to the conclusion that the Canadian firm will be showcasing the new operating system for its BlackBerry line of smartphones. There are also rumors swirling that a new handset with a slide-out keypad will be introduced. It is these rumors that have the stock trading higher.

If you don't think Nokia (NOK) is nervous about the growing domination of the iPhone and Android-based smartphones, you had better update your map.

Nokia announced Tuesday that it is going to be selling its wireless modem business to Japan's Renesas Electronics for $200 million in an attempt to concentrate its focus on its handsets.

Nokia Corp. (NOK) used to be the dominant player in the cell phone industry. But thanks to smartphone manufacturers like Apple (AAPL), HTC and others, Nokia is losing market share, and its stock price is plunging.

Now, just in case you are thinking that Nokia looks like a good value play, take a look at what analysts are saying.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Canadian firm Research in Motion Limited (RIMM) is preparing new devices and software to compete with Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and iPad. RIM's offering reportedly has a slide-out keyboard and a touch screen and works much like the iPhone as far as swiping through screens and expanding images by touch. In addition, the communications firm is toying with a tablet as a larger-screen BlackBerry phone.

RIM will not comment on the Journal story, as it is considered rumor and speculation. However, should the firm's new products come to fruition they would be available around the end of the year. RIM continues as a leader in the global smartphone market, but it is losing ground in North America thanks to AAPL's iPhone and iPad.

As a major validation of the importance of smartphones, HP (HPQ) agreed to shell out $1.2 billion for Palm (PALM) this week. The truth is that consumers and businesses are increasingly using mobile devices. In fact, the market for smartphones is $100 billion and growing at more than 20% per year.

OK, so how can you use a smartphone to help your business? Actually, one idea is to turn it into a point-of-sale system, which is actually fairly straightforward and affordable.

Life was so much easier when Twitter wasn't worried about making money. Some spectacular venture capital deals propelled the company's value to over $1 billion, and user trends shot bragging rights up proportionately. Its ascendancy resulted in large part from the efforts of the Twitter ecosystem where companies developed 70,000 applications that have made life easier or more measurable for Twitter users. It's easy to lose track of how much of our Twitter interaction lies on third-party apps – from photo sharing to smartphone applications to URL shortening.

As long as Twitter's functionality ambitions remained modest, the ecosystem knew it would thrive. As we head toward the Chirp conference for Twitter application developers concerns over the future of the ecosystem abound. Here are five reasons why the companies around Twitter may start to worry about the microblogging juggernaut.

This summer, Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s iPhone and iPad are going to have a feature that iPhone users have been dying to see since the phone hit the market in 2007... the ability to multitask.

The iPhone took the world by storm when it was released, and each time Apple releases a new model of the popular smart phone consumers line up and wait for hours, and in some cases days, to get their hands on the new Apple iPhone. While the phone is one of the most popular phones on the market today, there are a couple of issues with them, and the inability to multitask ranks up at the top of list of features that iPhone users have wanted.

Google (GOOG) and its Android operating system is giving Apple (AAPL) and its iconic iPhone a serious run for the money right now. Nearly twice as many consumers are using Android-based phones now compared with three months ago, according to a recent survey by ChangeWave Research.

That's no fun for Apple, of course, but survey results show that the tech giant is still holding its own with high customer satisfaction and a larger share of the market. AAPL isn't going down anytime soon -- but the real threat lies to BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIMM) that saw market of its smart phones share dip sharply in the survey and is seeing waning demand for its devices.

The stock of AT&T Inc. (T), first written about here on February 11, 2009, at a price of $25.89, has meandered at/near $26 for the better part of a year, and that is a disappointment.

Even so, T remains well-positioned for the Internet/communications revolution in the years ahead. Look for T's revenue to grow about 2-4% in 2010, led by an impressive increase in cell phone customers (which numbered about 85 million as of January 2010) and wireless data service customers.