Apple is cashing in on the stellar iPhone success and will be in a better position with the recent change on its strategy for the iPod Touch, turning it from a mere MP3 player to a real mobile gaming platform, something that will put the iPod Touch to compete directly with Sony PSP and Nintendo DS and DSi, both platforms have been losing some market to the iPhone/iPod Touch because of the diversity of games and a cheaper price than those found for the PSP and DS.

But the success of Apple in the mobile business has other big companies thinking about it, how to steal Apple thunders and conquer the mobile market is the main homework of employees from Microsoft to Sony. Sony for its part think that the whole iPhone/iPod Touch phenomenum is not more than a soap bubble that may explode and disappear any day soon, but Microsoft is taking its frustration against Apple to a whole new level copying and investing more resources in areas where the iPhone put them on shames.

The new Mini War: Microsoft vs Apple
Microsoft laughed about Apple’s intentions to enter the mobile market with a bran new phone with a totally new offering, this ignorance combined with the popular Microsoft laziness and loss of creativity or nothing new to offer in the old Windows Mobile platform put Microsoft in a really bad position in one market they were just the King.

Now, with its pride in the pocket, Microsoft is fighting Apple in all the area it (Apple) has a real domination, take for example the laptop segment where Apple has a prominent position, Microsoft aired an advertising campaign that directly attacks Apple’s laptops advantages, notice that We haven’t seen any other type of ads or related to other Microsoft products in this campaign, because this is what is hurting Microsoft, You Find it, You Keep it.

Zune and Zune HD has been the response from Microsoft to the iPod Touch and while the Zune HD packs cutting edge technology and new strategy is still a project that has to prove itself, it hasn’t captured the mass appealing momentum, something that doesn’t bother Microsoft at all, it has been polishing and adding new features and a whole new gaming strategy around it, nothing strange seeing Apple doing the same with the iPod Touch.

To fight Apple in the the iPhone space, Microsoft is taking two different approaches: a) Update the Windows Mobile (now Windows Phone or WinMo, whatever), and reinvent the mobile platform to gain back some relevance; b) Create a new mobile phone (a la Zune) with the recently bought mobile phone maker Danger (Sidekick), this will take some time and the new WinMo 7 won’t be ready until 2010, so there is plenty of time for Apple to re-create the iPhone from the ground up.

Apple Genius Bar VS Microsoft Guru Cantina
Microsoft is now entering into the retail business in a vulgar attempt to get the same level of customers confidence with its products or third-party products, that goes to copy Apple Store layout, Sections and now the same Apple employees with recent news that Microsoft is trying to lure away some Apple Stores’ employees to work for them, but what is a real and cold evidence of Microsoft’s intentions against Apple is that the shiny new stores will be located in the same malls of those from Apple, in an extraordinary effort to compete with Apple in its own space.

There’s not doubt that Microsoft’s stores will get more visits than Apple, those that will really see the new offers and million of Apple’s users that will go to compare what is copied or not, but a month later these visits will deflate, because there is not way for Microsoft to help people solve problems with third-party products, it will be a very daunting task.

Microsoft deep pocket let them burn some billions until they get the relevance needed in any segment or in a difficult circunstance buy the rival and morph it into a new division, they have done it in its fight against Google, where they created a lot of divisions and services that now are shutting down or merging into others and now with the announced collaboration between Yahoo! and Bing.

This war is just starting and as it goes, it promises to be an interesting one and if you mix together other companies that are fighting for a bigger piece of mobile business, then there’ll be blood all over, some may disappear, other will be merge and Microsoft could end losing a few billions or getting its Windows Mobile where it deserves.