The price point is set at 99€, then for around 13€ per month you’ll get unlimited data to send and receive your emails.

This could be a serious threat to BlackBerry prosumer users, which have bought their BlackBerries just for the email functionality and now have a real alternative, less expensive and available everywhere around Europe without lengthy binding contracts.

At the same time, offering data roaming connection for a bunch of euros per month disrupts the current roaming market, nowadays hardly accessible to consumers and small businesses that can easily spend hundreds of euros over a weekend abroad.

I can’t wait to learn more about this!

Live video by Ustream

I strongly believe, as an European, that Micheal is right. Indeed he could have used different words and be less arrogant as he was a guest, but let’s face it: what he said is true!

However first of all we must underline that we cannot speak of Europe as we can of the USA. They have 50 states that, one by one, entered the federation willing to share a set of common values and recognized being an American as the bottom line of their being. The 27 states that form today’s Europe entered the union not pushed by a general sentiment of fellowship moved by its citizens, but from the unilateral decision of their leaders that wanted strong economic relations and free trade among European countries.

This caused the European Union to be everything but an unite and homogeneous set of countries. We can all agree on the fact that Alaska and Georgia have a lot more in common than Portugal and Latvia.

Just read Paul Carr’s article on the Guardian to see for yourself you old antagonisms between countries and cultures are still actual.

Micheal shouldn’t have said that “Europeans” as a whole are lazy, but should have kept his comment restricted perhaps to southern Europe. Italians and French may be slow, but just fly to London or Amsterdam and you’ll experience a totally different vibe.

In countries like Italy and France the entrepreneur faces different challenges, such as being seen as a stealer who exploits labor, high taxes, bureaucracy and a general attitude that tend to do things at a slow pace.

It’s clear that in such situation is truly ridiculous to still believe that Europe can reach the USA, especially in the internet and tech business where time to market, high response times and high risk taking entrepreneurs are required!

Why be offended by Micheal’s words? I’m European and I wasn’t offended, as he just had the guts to tell what every (clever) European knows, but fail to admit!

Sure, there are some exceptions such as the French startup Meetic that was born after the bubble burst and now has more than 600m $ in revenues, but we can’t build a system or find our excuses on exceptions!

I’m a strong believer of the European Union, but I still think that there’s a lot of work to do. People must feel European, the European Union has to be a grassroots change, not a rule imposed by the the governments.

In the past years when the people had a chance to talk about the Euro and the European Union, they generally expressed themselves against it! Just think about Ireland and Denmark! The politicians failed. They weren’t able to spread the European culture, the great opportunity that a unite Europe is.

Until Europe realizes its potential as unique united country, it will never be able to compete with the USA and other giant emerging economies. So, let’s face it, while the appearance of Micheal’s words can be irritating and annoying, the core meaning is true!

I have to say that, for me, this year conference hasn’t been as inspiring as the last one, where a series of speeches and presentations truly opened up my mind showing me new ways of looking at things.

This year many of the speakers kept their knowledge for themselves, refusing to share it with the (paying) audience, giving low level insights you can usually read on TechCrunch or Mashable (for free).

Only a few shared more than that, like John Buckman, Morten Lund, Marissa Mayer and the great Gary Vaynerchuk. I have to say that Gary’s the one that made my trip to Paris worth it, as I had the chance to meet him in person and have a brief chat with him.

I don’t think that, in my personal case, the fault of this conference being not very interesting is Loic’s. Last year I was essentially a blogger, far away from business plans and entrepreneurship. This year I learned a lot and passed trough many experiences. Maybe it’s just hard to surprise me, as I went to so many conferences this year and read so many articles that’s really difficult to cover a subjects I haven’t mastered.

Wine Library TV LIVE @ LeWeb

I think that at this level what makes the difference is not the content, but the orator. If the person presenting is a catalyst of enthusiasm and passion, this can allow me to see a subject I know with a new perspective, a different attitude. Gary’s show is not so interesting to me for the wine tasting itself (he’s the lucky buy drinking all that good wine, not me!), but for the passion that he conveys and that drives me to put the same passion and enthusiasm in what I do.

For next year’s conference I’d recommend Loic to be more demanding with the people he invites to speech: force them to share!

In a few days I’ll be in Paris, attending LeWeb as I did last year, a conference that inspired me a lot and made me meet a lot of very interesting people.

Conferences are all about meeting people. You don’t go there to listen to the speeches when you can listen to them comfy on your sofa at home. You go there to meet people, to share ideas, to connect with others.

This year I’ve met many interesting people, who shared with me their experiences and thoughts, while traveling around Europe. This helped me a lot in understanding things and generate new ideas.

A lot of things have changed since December 2007, when I attended LeWeb 3. Last year I was just trying to figure out what was going on in the startup world, while now I have my own startup to push forward and completely new challenges to face.

I’ll be there with friends who share the same experience and I’ll meet a lot of people that I got to know in some of this year’s travels. There couldn’t be a bettere conference to end this 2008 with!

See Ya in Paris!