Apple has defined themselves as a mobile devices company. With the amazing success of the iPod, iPhone and now what appears to be another home run with the iPad, it seems they are onto something. Clearly, their laptops are mobile devices and have been successful for a long time but the collection of categories that they are now dominating shows a sea change and appears to be showing a winner. Their market cap today is 234 billion, gaining on Microsoft which is at 275 billion. While 41 billion is not a small difference, they are gaining fast on the giant that used to seem insurmountable. People are mobile and people want to be connected all the time whether its to their music, their friends, their information, their games or their work. Apple has focused on that and enabled software developers to enable unique experiences for mobile consumers. The app store is an amazing phenomenon and while it is not perfect, it is a much better way to buy software than the old way. It is easy to find apps, it is easy to buy apps and the consumer has confidence that the app has had some level of QA through the Apple submission process. While the process can be frustrating to developers, and it is, it does provide the consumer with some comfort that they are not downloading a virus or some malware that will destroy their device. I certainly would prefer Apple to be more open but it is a balance as open can lead to poor applications, malware and other unexpected results. I’m sure the line will move over time but right now, controlling the network of applications is helping Apple dominate in this world of mobile devices.