To some extent, he is smoking.

For one, mobile isn't like other tech. Its not something that stays a matter of regional dominance. The US matters no more than any other region. In fact, if there is any region with mobile that he is totally overlooking its Africa. Its there where mobile app and tech is being pushed further and faster than other places. And that's not even including the fact that Japan and Korea are still way ahead of Europe and NAM on basic things like service, network performance and infrastructure.

Scoble is (like many in SV) infatuated with applications. There's nothing wrong with that. The ease at which Apple made that aspect of mobile relevant to users; and the way that Google has made Android appealing to developers, is indeed impressive. However, they serve such a small area of what "mobile" is that you can't make mountains out of molehills.

Should *some* areas of Europe feel threatened because the US has finally woken up in two areas? Probably. The UK doesn't speak for the entirety of the mobile culture of Europe any more that Silicon Valley speaks for the social networking culture of the US.

I would not expect companies like Nokia to appear slacking for long. And those places that Scoble missed (Korea w/LG and Samsung for instance) are the ones folks should be paying attention to. Not only are they doing solid things with hardware, but they are quietly learning the software and platform lessons, and applying them to areas within mobile that don't get as much attention, but have a lot more economic impact.