While the smartphone market is structuring around the big OSes that are iPhone, Android, RIM and Windows Mobile, one can wonder where the next powerful ideas will be coming from in terms of killer mobile applications. After the hype with casual games and the usual set of tools (better to-do list, better email client, better… , remotes…), and as the app stores are now super-filled, inventing and promoting relevant mobile application is far from being a breeze.

Yet, mobile apps is probably the most growing field in the computer world today. With all those feature-phones being converted into smartphones, this is the most growing space in the industry yet.

Below are a few themes worth thinking about that have yet to be addressed correctly:

• Convergence : Obviously our life is split between devices, and there even apple fails at offering a perfectly convergent experience (i.e. my iPhone doesn’t sync with 2 iTunes on 2 MACs even while they both are authorized on the same account). Ubiquitous data, ubiquitous usage… 1Password is an excellent example of how a great simple desktop app gets a mobile extension generating lots of value, same for Evernote.
• Productivity : there’s still plenty of space left in this area, all the vendors doing complicated stuf such as office doc editor which are totally not suited to mobile usage.
• Lifelog / LifeTracker : while there are tens of ways of sharing stuff from your mobile, I don’t feel satisfied with any as they all feel limited regarding the verbosity of the infos i want to share or the pertinence of the info I would like to see stored.
• Presence : Presence information is currently poorly used either in the core network or in the way events are being treated. Google Voice did an amazing first step (and they are way ahead rest of the world with this) yet there is still a long way to go before presence information is treated seamlessly and adds value to our live
• Books : Publishing is being reinvented through tactile interfaces, from interactive publishing to cross-media, there is loads to do there.
• Banking : I often wonder what Mint would be like on a cell-phone. Apart from the security issues, finances is a standard theme usually badly addressed. Update: As Jerome pointed out in the comments, the mobile payment is also something hot, but the ecosystem is a huge pain/mess to organize to see this happening.

There are probably lots of other themes that could be added for this list, so I’m open for contributions / ideas of use cases that need to be polished/enhanced / developed !

HTML5 has been around for some time, but I think it’s often misunderstood and people usually understand HTML5 as web videos without flash. HTML5 is far more than that. HTML4 has been our tool for building the web and was published in 1997 – that’s over a decade ago ! A lot changed since that time with the boradband, the high-performance machines, the GPUs… CSS, Javascript and Flash came in as “patches” enabling richer interaction, but it only lead to clumsy unstable browsing experience and headache for developers in order to support the various browsers in the market. HTML 5 is a game-changer in Web application development, making obsolete such plug-in-based rich Internet application (RIA) technologies. While still in its infancy, through its ability to handle media, 3d (WebGL) and proper rich interactions it’s already able to achieve unbelievable performance like the one showcased in the video below with a port of Quake2 in HTML5.

Finally got to try out in-flight Internet on a Delta Seattle-Atlanta plane. Totally seamless experience, the connection seems quite stable and even VPN get through properly! The only thing I’m missing is power plugs (although for some odd reason there is a usb-power plug under my seat). It’s amazing to see the cloud getting a bit more ubiquitous.

This booth tour of Imagination technology, the makers of the PowerVR chip that powers the Motorola Droid is fascinating. They announced that the chip they are currently designing and that will be found in mobile phones will provide “graphics comparable to the PlayStation 3 in three years”.

This chess set by Brandon Griffith is symple incredible. The guy is going to make one for each episode of the Star Wars Saga. This one is for “A New Hope” – Episode 4. I’d love to build one of those ! Please Lego make it happen !

Since 1999, Lego has released over 100 different Star Wars Mini figures. To give Star Wars Lego justice, I decided to build three different Chess sets, one for each original episode. This is the first of the series. Star Wars: A New Hope Lego Chess.

My goals with the individual chess pieces is to:
1. Is durable enough to play the game with.
2. Present a piece that closely represents a scene form the movie. My favorites are “Obi-wan and the tractor beam” & “Greedo”

The chess board:
1. Built strong enough to carry with out breaking
2. The playing area easily removes from the rest of the board to reveal compartments to store the pieces.
3. The detailing on the side on the board utilizes a lot of SNOT (Studs Not On Tops) techniques. This a technique that came out of the Adult Lego community.

Other Facts:
1. The chess board is built on a base of layered Lego plates.
2. Weighs 25lbs.
3. the Minifigs were the most expensive part on the chess set.

It’s true that sometimes when you think about all the intel google gets on your lives it’s scary – hopefully they don’t really care about your lives themselves and only want the advertisement money.

If this hadn’t been a blitz game there’s no way this trick would have worked! Gotta love the human factor when taking a bet. Pressure totally can make stupid plans work !

Play online chess

Apparently Verizon will be offering a Skype Option to their data plans for Skype use. Still “coming soon” on Verizon’s dedicated site.

Icrossing released a retty interesting map with the market share of mobile web browsers worldwide.
Dominic Parker from iconnect comments:

This map shows the popularity of different mobile browsing platforms country by country, with some interesting results.
Apple’s dominance can clearly be seen, with the iPhone and iTouch accounting for over half the market in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany and Japan.
The Android platform has its largest share in the US and the UK, but has a much weaker share in other countries. This could change in the near future as new phones emerge that run Android, such as the Nexus One.
Docomo and KDDI are the largest mobile phone operators in Japan, and account for 12% of the mobile browser share platforms.
Canada seems to like the iPhone and iTouch, with 86% of mobile internet users using this platform to access the internet.

Also interesting to see that in southern america Nokia still rules, and I have no explanation for Opera’s domination in Nigeria… any thoughts ?

As a serial entrepreneur, I’ve already had quite a few experiences in creating, funding, scaling and selling (or failing or stopping) businesses. A few very interesting trends have been emerging over the past few months and which got quite popular within my fellow entrepreneur’s minds:

• the “Lean” start-up. Basically the idea is that in 2010 you should be able to start up any Internet-based business with a super-low seed financing (typically a few kUSD). Use subcontractors in low-cost countries (rent-a-coder, odesk…) get a talented freelance web-designer and get started ! Release early (if you’re happy with your release then you took too long) and start making the buzz.
• Focus on less features but do them better than the competition. Steve Jobs demonstrated that it’s not the number of features that matter on the mass market, it’s the ease of use and understandability of the solution.
• Make a real business. Make a business where you have customers ready to pay for the service. Freemium is usually the way. Forget about the advertisement (limit it to the free part of your website) and focus on the transformation rate between free and paying customers. Make your business recurring, it really helps !
• Find a large enough market for your service, if Europe is too hard to address (# languages, payments methods, laws…) just move !
• Organize the buzz in your industry, blog be present and become a referent in your business. Find where the journalists look for their info in your area and make sure your messages are there visible to them. Forgen about making PRs, it’s old-fashioned, instead enroll the influential writers as advocates of your business.
• Get venture money only when you have created enough value and have enough figures proving that you will be able to translate marketing investments into new users and recurring money. If you can get profitable and that your business lets your live super-well, do not get venture money at all, and focus on getting that “4-hour workweek” dream. The moment you get venture, you’ll have to find an exit strategy in the next 3 to 5 years with a 10x return – it really limits your options for the future.