There was a fascinating article in Business Week on how the battle between Apple and Google is shaping up.  Here are two companies that together have won the hearts and minds of users in recent years.  They have recently imitated each other, and were so close that the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, sat on Apple's board at the request of Apple CEO, Steve Jobs.  But now things are different.  Both seem to be set on a collision course to gain dominance in the growing market of mobile computing.

Google's Android-based Nexus One has not yet set the world on fire, but it is gaining ground.  And Apple's new announcement of the iPad is clearly focused on rocking the mobile computing world like the iPhone and iTouch have over the past three years.  But is it just a larger i-Device?

An interesting prediction in the BW article is that "within five years more users will tap in to the Internet via mobile devices than PC's."  The trend certainly seems to be headed in that direction. So what happens when more people want more data over their wireless networks?  It requires more bandwidth.  Let's hope that LTE is deployed sooner rather than later, and folks get to spread out their usage over several providers.

How much are you willing to spend on these devices?  And how much more for your "unlimited" data plan?

(For those looking for early iPad reviews, here are some that are just now coming out from eWeek and David Pogue of the New York Times.)