In my professional travels I always like to note what kind of wireless devices the people I come into contact with are using. Being a marketer, I naturally gravitated toward the iPhone, while many of the sales professionals, financial wizards and engineering types I come across are Palm or Blackberry addicts.

I saw an article the other day about new programs Microsoft is putting into place to help its Windows Mobile operating system compete with the likes of Palm and Apple. It got me thinking of the interesting race left-brain companies like Microsoft and Blackberry are having with their right brain competitors like Apple. It’s almost as if each is starting from a different end of the field to see who can cross the 50 yard-line line first.

The left-brainers have a great start in the business world, with their fast functionality, easy email, and no-nonsense interfaces. The right-brainers dominate the consumer side with their gaming, social networking and music applications. Both recognize the tremendous market share at stake in their race to the middle. While Microsoft is placing much greater emphasis on music, photos and multimedia, Apple is running ads that say, “Making business trips feel less like work, one app at a time.”

This will be a continually evolving dynamic that will be fun to keep an eye on, and all of us smartphone users will be the beneficiaries.