But the secret war is not allowing open clashes as the both companies continue to pretend that they are on friendly terms and care most for consumers' well-being and high-tech development in general. The first to suffer are allies of which the companies, Google in particular, have plenty.

Apple has always been particularly concerned of its intellectual property but this year its paranoia seems to have increased tremendously. The International Trade Commission has been particularly busy with a bunch of patent claims presented by or against Apple.

Several months ago Apple filed a suit alleging HTC had infringed a range of Apple's patents and literally stole the results of its think tank. HTC compiled a counter-claim, having found its own faults with Jobs' company. Both companies are asking to stop import to the US of the products mentioned in the claims so the ITC is very busy spending tax-payers' money to carry on that highly effective investigation. No doubt, the real target of Apple's picking was Google which immediately supported its manufacturer. The US patent laws seem a bit outdated as the number of lawsuits of the kind has recently been increased. Some analysts say that amendments and alterations to the patent legislation are of vital importance.

Another Google's soldier is Adobe. It's a solid and highly reliable ally, which has its own reasons to dislike Apple. The flash issue has been the main topic for discussion for the several months. The Internet community as well as the high-tech world seems be divided as the front line is whether you like Flash or not.

If you do not like it, you are in an extremely respectful company having Apple as your neighbor. You can without another thought buy any Apple product so you won't be surprised that your favorite Flash game which helps you to kill free time doesn't work there. Apple's CEO quite severely criticized Adobe and its Flash project claiming the software outdated and being the reason for all the crashes on Macs. So, Apple doesn't like Adobe and proclaimed that it will never install its products at its devices like the iPhone or the iPad. Adobe's reply was well-planned although not that instant. It complained that Apple's move is infringing its business activity in general and provoked a special investigation launched by the government to find traces of the antitrust law threats. At the same time all the Internet was decorated with colorful banners claiming how Adobe loves Apple and does not love when somebody takes away freedom. In addition, Adobe delivered its Flash player to the new iteration of Android OS Froyo, so Flash fans have just to wait for a new Android phone to come to enjoy a game or two.

But Apple seems not to lose time and have found its own allies, quite a mighty one, by the way. As at the business sphere everything is very relative and former enemies can become ardent friends, so no wonder that a new Apple's partner is Microsoft. Having surpassed mutual antagonism the companies realized that they have something in common – a common enemy Google. Apple hates it for its Android OS which runs on a number of good and quality handsets and Microsoft doesn't like it for the Google Docs which could threaten Microsoft's monopoly at the enterprise office market.

So, a first clash is over. Android users will have Flash, HTC will continue to stand for its rights at the court. iPhone users will have Bing, Microsoft's search engine which seems to replace Google in the future and federal officers – lot's of work dealing with all that. Everybody is happy. So far.