Ever since the concept of a Google Phone or gPhone was suggested, pundits and analysts alike have theorised about the battle between it and the iPhone.  Since Google's announcement of Android and the Open Handset Alliance, the side-taking has reached even headier heights; although there have been a few voices of relative reason - ARM's Warren East, for instance - the temptation of a headline grabbing story featuring two emotive companies has lured in many.  Thankfully, as theorised for a while now over at Google-Phone, more people are waking up to the idea that actually, Apple really isn't Android's main target; in fact, they may have a common (though undiscussed) goal of disrupting the market status-quo.

Both are pitting themselves against traditional carrier assumptions: Apple, that the network should have executive control over functions as well as long-term revenue, and Google, that the network should lock down the mobile OS in order to preserve the "sanctity" of the spectrum (and, coincidentally of course, their lucrative revenue streams too). 

"We believe Google is working with, not against, Apple in the mobile world" Gene Munster, Analyst, Piper Jaffray & Co.

Undoubtedly the iPhone and those Android handsets currently predicted cater to different (in various shades of subtlety) consumers; the Apple handset, for all the posturing, is lacking the flexibility and high-end features of a traditional smartphone but has undoubted attraction in a way which transcends fashion or function, while Android appears to be targeting both the very high-end (with HTC) and the budget end (with manufacturers taking advantage of the 'free' OS to lower production costs).  Until those markets converge, the two are unlikely to come to blows.