According to GigaOM, an official announcement should be made towards mid-November. So what does it mean for the industry, for Google and for consumers? First of all, expect many handset manufacturers to start shipping Gphone enabled terminals by mid-2008. Nokia and the Symbian consortium folks (including Sony Ericsson) will certainly pass the opportunity, although I believe it might be a big strategic mistake. My gut feeling about what people will find integrated in the Gphone OS is naturally the full suite of Google tools, starting from localized search through Google Maps, Gmail, Google Apps (that will most certainly include push email and over-the-air sync of address books and calendars), social network elements through the OpenSocial initiative Google is launching, tight integration with on-device embedded GPS systems and subtle ways to deliver targeted advertising at each step of the way.

So what does this change in the industry? For Google, mobile will become the most efficient and profitable media to deliver context and location based advertising in the long run. For Microsoft, it’s a nightmare scenario. Windows Mobile 6 is by far one of the worst mobile OS I’ve tried in terms of user experience, only 20 million Windows Mobile devices were sold since they launched their OS a couple of years ago (compared to 1 million iPhones in the first weeks). Moreover Gphone OS will for sure provide over-the-air sync and support for Google Apps, the Microsoft Exchange/Office/Blackberry long-term killer. For developers it’s a real new opportunity to launch innovative apps on mobile at a time where mobile broadband slowly but surely becomes a reality. The mobile carriers advantage is unclear with their current positioning and I believe that the rumors of Verizon, T-Mobile and others wanting to support Gphone terminals at launch is more related to what they expect will be an iPhone effect (selling a lot of new subscriptions), rather than a real underlying data-driven strategy.

In any case it’s very good news for the industry. Gphone will be open to developers, and anything open on mobile is new and most welcome!

All in all it was a pretty good conference, but support for Sponsors was kind of weak (Zong was a Silver Sponsor of the conference). The organizer will need to pay extra attention to this for their next edition.

The very positive feedback we had from almost all developers at the conference is very encouraging. We explained how Mobile can become a true alternative or complement to advertising based business models on the Web. Most startups can add a mobile experience to their App and generate revenues as users are ready to pay on mobile while the perception of the free world on the Internet is still prevalent.

We have some very exciting startups about to launch using Zong and I will comment on these when they get out of stealth mode. Also while I’m at it, you should read the Zong’s blog, as the team now posts regularly on its progress.

In any case, one cannot help but make the parallel between Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates in Microsoft early days (see picture). Will Facebook become a true OS on the web with all the applications you need? People already use Facebook to send “emails” to other users although they know the email address of the recipient. This alone shows the prevalence of this amazing platform.

Techcrunch 40 also featured some really promising startups, the winner of the conference, Mint, is really a very useful service. It allows you to consolidate and manage all of your financial information automatically and categorizes your credit and debit card spending to manage your budget more efficiently. If people trust an Internet startup enough to give it access to all of their financial data (that’s their challenge), then they could be off to a great success.

Another true problem solver is Tripit, which allows you to aggregate all your travel plans, flights, car and hotel reservations in one place and share them with friends, family or colleagues. The upload of reservations is as easy as forwarding your email reservation confirmations to plans(at)tripit.com, the service then “digests” the email and adds the details automatically to your account.

Finally one of my favorite companies pitching was South Korean Musicshake. It is an amazing web based tool to create great music without any musical talent. Labels are going to love this… An 8-year old Korean kid has become a star overnight by creating a tune on Musicshake that eventually became nr 1 on the Korean version of MySpace! The beauty with this app is that not only is it cool, it also has an amazing business model. The moment you like the track you created, you have to pay to download it. Finally there’s a marketplace where people can buy music created on Musicshake and revenue is shared with the tune creators.

Other companies, such as CastTV or Viewdle, having one the best video search tool I’ve seen for one and a very good face recognition technology for the other, are definitely well positioned to be bought by Google or any of the big players in the Valley as video is really the core of their focus and they need these technologies to improve user experience and indexing.

After spending those 2 roller coaster days in San Francisco, we spent the next 2 days with meetings in Silicon Valley. The conclusion: if you’re launching a tech or web company and you’re not in the Valley, move there. There’s a lot more competition but also the perfect mix of energy, people, venture capital money and neighbors to make it big. But don’t go to make money, join the Valley’s thinking of solving problems and making things better, if you execute well, money will probably follow…

I’ll try to write some posts from the conference and upload some pictures.

See you there!

As I’ll be shortly heading to the US, let me know if you want one by posting a comment here.

It is becoming ever more insidious with mobile phones being connected. As soon as we get a chance to get away and mentally disconnect from the online world, a text alert from Twitter or an email on your Blackberry telling you someone has added you as a friend on Facebook pulls you back in. The exponential evolution of technology will definitely extend online time massively each year.

Can we start talking about addiction? I believe for certain of us we can. Is spending more time online bad? For sure no. The tools we have at our fingertips today allow us to do things that were unimaginable only 5 years ago, online social networks enable millions of people to spend more time communicating with friends and therefore extending social life notably. We just need to make sure we still have some good sense left and we can do things with measure. I lost my Blackberry in the back of a taxi in Bangkok a few months ago and was virtually offline a few hours in a row each day, not only did I survive, but it was a great experience.

Now I’ll try this nice advice on myself as I’m writing on my blog while my wife is waiting for me to drive to the mountains!

For more detailed information, please read Zong’s blog, and, in French, a very good post from Techcrunch.

A trial is better than a 1,000 words, so pay a visit to Zong!

”Real” support for Microsoft Exchange server is the only thing missing. When the iPhone becomes as tightly integrated with Exchange with email, address book and calendar synchronization over-the-air, I will ditch my Blackberry the same instant. For now I guess, I’ll be carrying both devices like a good mobile geek I am… (the good thing is that the Blackberry 8300 Curve is really small, so I can live with that for a little while).

What most people don’t realize is how the iPhone will change the mobile industry for ever. Carriers have been trying to sell content and various services online to justify the near $200 billion (in Europe) spent on acquiring 3G spectrum licenses and network roll-out. Apart from SMS, content sold by carriers didn’t even make a dent in their balance sheet, while amortization of licenses and infrastructure is killing them. The only viable business model for carriers is to open the gates and generate revenues by selling flat-rate, unlimited data plans on top of voice and messaging services. Before the iPhone, it was theoretical, now they have no choice. Through iTunes you can crop and transform any of your full-tracks into ringtones and use them on your iPhone for 99¢, compare that to the $5+ you pay to download a ringtone from your carrier deck (in the UK)… For the first time you can seriously browse the real web from a mobile device, with the next iPhone, that will undoubtedly support 3G, carriers will be in a position to sell data packages to millions of users that will really want data services for the first time because the interface hurdle has been solved. They can either accept this, as AT&T did in the US, or be left aside while carriers that will accept Apple’s rough financial conditions (sharing revenues on everything) will rack-in subscribers by the million. Does Compuserve ring a bell?

Well done Steve (that is Jobs of course). After revolutionizing the computer industry (by inventing the mouse, and the interfaces we all use) and the music industry, you’re about to turn your third industry upside-down, only this time you’re addressing a 3 billion+ users market… Anyone out there listening? Buy Apple stocks, even at $130+.