Apple Inc. (AAPL), Google Inc (GOOG), Research In Motion Ltd (BBRY) and Trends for Teens

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) is also in the race as a second-tier player right now. However, it’s never safe to write off the Redmond-based company. The new partnership with Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK)is an effort to rebuild Microsoft’s penetration into the smartphone market. Like Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), though, Microsoft doesn’t seem to be focusing on the young users of today but focusing on the business class traveler with both the Windows 8 phone and the Surface tablet. We’ll be five years figuring out whether that’s a strategy that will work.

So there’s not doubt about it. Smartphones are, indeed, the coming thing. Only a fool couldn’t see it as teens adopt them at a greater pace than adults and become more comfortable using them for all sorts of tasks that those of us working for a living aren’t yet doing. How they grow into their role as the first truly mobile Internet-savvy generation that the world has ever seen is yet to be determined. We’re all going to be dinosaurs; I just hope the comet doesn’t hurt much when it lands.

Good luck!

The article Apple, Google, BlackBerry and Trends for Teens originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Nate Wooley.

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