Just received this email from Google’s Eric Chu as an Android Marketplace member:

Android Market will become available to users to download apps in additional European countries starting early Q1 2009. Some of the countries we will initially support are Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and the Netherlands. As we add support for additional countries in Europe and Asia, we will send out subsequent notifications to you. (…)

Additionally, I would like to confirm that Android Market will support priced applications starting early Q1 2009, as we’d originally stated last fall. Given the country-by-country work required to set up payment support for developers in different countries, we will enable priced app support in Q1 for developers operating in these countries in the following order: (1) United States and UK; (2) Germany, Austria and Netherlands; (3) France, Italy and Spain.

Two excellent news opening a new direction for business opportunities and that should energize the entrepreneurs reading this blog !

Btw, so excited, I’m getting y development G1 phone next week to try out this field (2009 starts geeky!)

The last 6 months have been really exciting in the mobile ecosystem field, and the next 12 month will be, in my opinion, totally changing the landscape as we know it.

First of all, phones are getting way better from a hardware point of vue, which mean that even entry-level phones start having really powerful processors and screens are also improving. This is a major organic trend leveraging on natural chipset and components cost reductions.
Along with that hardware evolution, usage of the mobile phone is getting much more mature and now goes beyond voice calls and texting. While using a mobile as a game device has been fast to be accepted, accessign the Internet from one’s mobile does not sound like a crazy nerd idea anymore, and this is mostly thanks to Apple’s strong worldwide Ad presence. Mails and mobile web are now seen as something useful ready to reach the masses.

Thus here comes my first prediction : Even entry level phones (at 1€ with a new contract) will start offering smartphone-like functions such as decent web browsing and emails. Also they will allow high-quality dedicated apps installation as a “first-screen” feature (and not buried in the Application/Java/XXX tree of your phone menu).

The second prediction will have to do with the OSes. Android has finally made its way to a first phone actually on the market since September 2008. Blackberry OS has matured into something more appealing then it ever was. Apple Iphone’s OS is a reference in terms of user interaction and homogeneity, and has defined a new standard for application deliveries through its marketplace. Symbian remains strong and bound to Nokia.

My second prediction is that : Android will enable newcomers in the Phone manufacturing segment to deliver high-quality low-cost hardware and rely on Android for the software thus changing the current balance of power between current vendors and skilled taiwanese/Chinese ODMs. 2009 will see at least ten Android phones coming from totally unknown vendors (at least from the mass market).

My third prediction is that : Windows mobile market share is going to crunch (unless Microsoft really manages to deliver a fast and reactive OS that does not have to live with its history of an early days as a pen-based PDA OS).

My fourth prediction is that : Each OS will bind strongly with one mass market work environment, just as iPhone is bound to iTunes/Mac, Android is bound to google, Windows Mobile to Windows, Blackberry and Symbian will have to take sides and offer out-of-the-box best-in-class support of at least one work environment – and Yahoo! will have to be one of those.

While the first Android phone in the market, the G1, really looked like crap to me, I must confess that this one from the Australian Kogan is pure w00tness. It’s a 3G phone expected to ship January 2009 and retail at about 300USD. Beware though, it has no WiFi and GPS (if you want those add another 100USD to the beast for the pro version)!
I didn’t know the Kogan brand at all and it seems like they are sourcing products from China/Taiwan and just to rebrand and distribute them, which makes me wonder who the real original device manufacturer of the coolest google phone phone I’ve ever seen is (not so much competition here)?

Update: Ok, I must admit I was wrong – I had a g1 in my hands two days ago and while the phone really looks like a brick it’s really far from it! Nice touch, pretty light, nicely finished and awesome screen and keyboard.

After Wildcharge, Psyclone TouchCharge kit is next in line to provide wireless power to mass market consumer applications. While I don’t know precisely which vendor is providing with the actual wireless power technology (both companies are “just” device manufacturers), this reminds me of the awesome powercast demo I had during last year’s CES. Would be curious to know which vendor has now taken the lead over that field.

Update: actually I just met Wildcharge’s CEO and it appears that Psyclone is their first OEM deal – I guess it’s not just for nothing that the technology was so similar …

If you have a cool idea around LBS you want to demonstrate, you really should go there !

Obviously, the Fring application on iPhone has disabled VoIP when on 3G connection – I guest that was the only way for them to have their way into the app store … Too bad as SIP and skype work great when on WiFI !

Wireless USB (aka UWB aka Wimedia aka 802.15.3) can stream HD movies over the air, and we just got our hands on a cool reference design kit to play with ! It’s about 15USD on large quantities added to the total bill of materials price, this is getting pretty cheap!

Since the latest Mac event, where Jobs talked big about iPhone being the next-gen portable gaming platform, I decided it was time to give it a try. I had only been testing the semi-pro apps and hobbyists games, I wanted to give a shoot at those blockbuster high-budget/high-expectations games. I chose Spore as it certainly reached a climax in the last couple weeks at my RSS buzz-o-meter.
Spore is edited by EA, and I had high expectations on the quality of the game itself. Well, I’ve been most disappointed for quite a lot of reasons, although the game itself is “cute”, you drive your little monster through changing mazes to eat other monster’s DNA and evolve, the realization is really poor:

• The accelerometer is not precise enough to play – especially on a vibrating environment such as the underground. Every change of seating position will require a re-calibration of the “zero” position – really painful…
• The intro movie scene is just being played by the quicktime movie player – pressing the screen during the intro shows the control – that’s so cheap and lame !
• While playing if you ever hit the home key (c’mon guys it’s under the thumb – of course you’re going to hit it), the game exits and your progression is lost … same when you get a phone call… that’s really a pain
• The gamme is really totally linear, and although I’ve reached level 19 it feels like I’m still wandering in the same environments… and I really have no clue why I’m moving my monster : there is not scenario there

As a conclusion I’d say that it’s amateur work – the game looks like a student project and it’s totally not worth the 9€ 8.99€ EA asks for it – should they have not invested so much in marketing over the “SPORE” brand, that game would have had no more than a 1/5 star rating… I was really expecting more for iPhone high-end games hope we get to see some better stuff soon.

Thanks @sdelbecque for pointing out this app – “Character” is an iPhone app available free on App Store that lets you search for you WoW avatars and retriever their stats/items/stuuf and displays them live on your iPhone. Wanna show your latest cool epic loot to your frinds in real life, now you can do it straight from your iPhone !