In smart phone market, features such as camera, email access and games are becoming common and commodity. Software is a new “differentiator” in smart phone domains. Developing their own platform allows a smart phone company to offer applications such as social networking sites and software unique to the phone. This help them attracting and retaining customers. Android entry into Indian mobile segment was mentioned in an earlier post: Android makes Indian Debut. One of the software platforms for which smart phone companies are converging is Android by Google. Android operating system specially designed for mobile devices allows smart phone companies to benefit from the brand name and harness the myriad of applications already available. Android’s open-source nature, meaning developers can customize the software to meet their own needs. Currently about 50% of smart phone run on Nokia’s Symbian operating system and research in motion and windows mobile are next two leading choices. Apple’s App Store already has tens of thousands of applications available for users of its iPhone to download.