Apple is on an incredible roll with its mobile products, but Google is piecing together a formidable rival with the Android platform. The difference in approaches comes down to control. Apple, notoriously control freaks, have a relatively closed operating system while there are dozens of permutations of Android. In the history of the Internet, open has nearly always trumped closed. Will that be the case here? It looks that way, judging by a report released by Nielsen on smartphone use. But it depends on how you work the numbers. Android’s overall share of the market is higher than iPhone and BlackBerry, but Android’s chunk is split among several handset makers. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is betting consumers have little interest in that type of fragmentation.

More in Media
Why brands like Gap Inc. and Staples are inviting their employees to be creators
Companies are scrambling for creators. Turns out they already employ them.
Media Briefing: The case for and against markdown for AI bots
Markdown is becoming publishers’ latest AI optimization tactic, raising questions about the scraping tradeoff.
People Inc. CEO: We’re not turning off Google crawlers yet
People Inc. won’t cut off Google’s AI crawlers yet, citing its continued dependence on Google search traffic even as referrals decline.