As  iPhones, Android Phones and BlackBerry’s sell by the millions, Microsoft reached a major milestone of its own this week for its forthcoming Windows Phone 7 Smartphone platform.    The company plans for a multiple Window Phone 7 smartphones to be available in time for the coming 2010 Christmas shopping season.   The latest mobile operating system from Microsoft features aggregated Web content and apps that are organized into category specific Hubs that include “Games” or “Office”.    “Windows Phone 7 is the most thoroughly tested mobile platform Microsoft has ever released,” Terry Myerson, corporate vice president of Windows Phone Engineering, blogged on Sept 1st. “We had nearly 10,000 devices running automated tests daily, over a half million hours of active self-hosting use, over three and a half million hours of stress test passes, and eight and a half million hours of fully automated test passes.”

As August draws to a close, Google made its 5th acquisition of the month with its purchase of the Canadian social gaming company SocialDeck.  "We started this company with the goal of connecting friends through social games on all kinds of exciting new mobile devices," SocialDeck wrote on the company’s web site. "We've been amazed and humbled by all of the stories and experiences our customers (you!) have shared with us."   Recently Google acquired other social gaming companies such as Jambool and Slide, and has vested $200 million in Zynga which popular on Facebook.  A week ago Google bought Angstro which makes social-media applications, and it also recently purchased iLike, the e-commercial visual search company. Google has not disclosed its plans for the SocialDeck, however the social focused acquisitions has fueled much speculation about Google’s plans to expand in the social arena.

 SocialDeck is known for a number of games that include Pet Hero Puzzle, Shake & Spell, Shake & Spell 3D, and Color Connect.    The company distributed the games through iTunes and made Shake & Spell available through Facebook and Blackberry.   The company offered both free and 99 cent versions of their applications.   The company also developed Spark, a social-gaming platform that works on Facebook, iPhone and Blackberry to connect players across social games.

Related Links:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2368513,00.asp

http://www.develop-online.net/news/35739/SocialDeck-buyout-next-in-Google-spending-spree

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/netsys/article.php/3901371/Google-Continues-Social-Buying-Spree-With-SocialDeck.htm

From recent moves by the company, it appears that Apple may be working on another iPhone based game changer.  Apple has just hired Benjamin Vigier, a pioneer in developing near field communication (NFC) devices and systems.  His prior job was product manager at mFoundry where he involve with the development of their innovative PayPal and Starbucks’ barcode centered mobile payment solutions and mobile wallet applications with a large U.S. bank. NFC technology allows consumer to transmit data over short distances to payment terminals and wireless devices.   According to a TechCrunch report, Apple currently has testing under way for an “NFC-based mobile payments service that lets consumers make payments to merchants and other consumers" that works with credit and debit cards and iTunes accounts and iPhone options that will be known as iPay, iBuy and iCoupons.    Apple’s development of the smart mobile payment solutions have progressed to the point where people have begun to speculate on when it will actually happen.