Games are the focus, judging by the recent activity of software developers monitored by Flurry Analytics:

The chart above shows the proportion of iPad apps being created for each category in the iTunes App Store by developers who are testing on the actual devices. Flurry, a popular provider of analytics software for mobile applications, tracked the number of programs using its software on the tablet and divvied them up by category.

Games are the predominant type of app being tested on the iPad, making up 44% of the total. Entertainment, which Apple has generally defined as videos and novelties like lava lamp apps, take second with 14%. Social networking programs made up 7% of the total, followed by sports, travel, lifestyle, and utilities.

The data is not a comprehensive look at all the apps that will be available for the iPad shortly after its launch, since it does not account for the apps being built on an iPad simulator, which Apple invites anyone to download for a nominal fee.

Instead, the chart may offer a window into the types of applications Apple is most focused on getting perfect for the iPad's release on April 3. While selecting which developers to "seed" with actual iPad devices before launch -- a process reported on by Bloomberg BusinessWeek Friday -- the company appears to have favored game makers, whose apps are generally more complex and may require that developers have a greater familiarity with the capabilities of the device.

Flurry Analytics would not disclose the total number of iPad applications or iPads it's currently monitoring, or their location, as it did in January. The company could not comment on whether the activity it's monitoring is the result of an effort by Apple to seed third-party developers.

Park, who replaced former CEO JB (Jung Bong) Chun, previously worked as Pantech’s vice chief officer of overseas sales and marketing, where he managed all international product sales and marketing for the company. Before then, he was the head of Pantech’s R&D and oversaw the development of key handsets. Prior to joining Pantech, Ronis was a sales executive at LG Electronics MobileComm and Cingular Wireless (now AT&T), so he has connections that could help get more Pantech products into the carrier’s stores.

Pantech aims to increase the number of handsets it makes for AT&T to 15% of total volume the carrier sells within three years. At the end of 2009, Pantech, which has been working to make inroads into the U.S. market for several years, produced only 5% percent of cell phones sold by AT&T, according to the handset maker.

Pantech wants to step up pressure on makers Samsung and LG in the U.S. “We are now ready to move into the upper echelon of strategic partners [at AT&T],” Ronis says. Pantech will introduce six new handsets at AT&T this year, double last year’s number, he says. He hopes to sell eight to 10 handsets to AT&T annually within three years.

To get there, Pantech has refocused on making Qwerty keyboard-based, quick-messaging devices, which account for some 65% of AT&T’s sales. Later in 2010, Pantech will introduce its first touch-screen phone, the Pantech Pursuit. It will have a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, and come with a number of nifty features. For example, you can program it to get to the right application with a shake: One shake of the phone might open up your messaging application. Two shakes might open up your social-networking app. It’s likely to sell for $49 to$79 from AT&T, Ronis says. “Over the next couple of years, we are going to break into other parts of [AT&T’s] portfolio,” he says.

Last year, North American consumers paid an average $1.09 per application, compared with less than 20 cents in many other regions, according to Sharma. As a result, U.S. app purchasers accounted for more than 50% of total global app revenue, even though Asians downloaded more applications. To come up with his estimates, Sharma interviewed 20 large industry players, including carriers, content providers and handset makers.

The upshot is that for now, the U.S. remains the land of plenty for app developers, according to Sharma. At $1.09, North America has the highest average price per application in the world. Average purchase price in many other regions stands at below 20 cents, according to Sharma.

Ask Clearwire. An average Clear service user consumes more than 7 Gigabytes of data per month, says Clearwire, which delivers access at speeds, it claims, that are up to four times faster than those available for laptops from cellular service companies. Clear allows people to plug a tiny card into a laptop's USB port to surf the Web.

That's equivalent to an average user streaming a couple of movies onto his or her laptop a month. While that might not sound like much, it's a lot more usage than what most people are getting out of their mobile laptops and smartphones today. An average iPhone owner only uses up about 500 Megabytes of data a month, estimates independent wireless consultant Chetan Sharma. An average laptop owner likely consumes about double that amount.

Clearwire customers likely use the service more because it's faster. It can deliver a faster speed because Clearwire's network runs on a different technology, called WiMax.

Still, it's an important lesson for other providers, such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility. They are investing billions to beef up their networks, and they will eventually see as much per-user broadband use. They'd better plan for it – or, else, cap the amount of bandwidth their customers can use up in order to prevent their networks from being overwhelmed with traffic.

The revision underscores the rising occurrence of so-called gray-market products, which are typically made by small Chinese start-ups and sold throughout Asia and Latin America. Knock-offs and small unlicensed suppliers' phones accounted for 13% of the global phone supply, or 145 million units, last year, consultant iSuppli said last November. In 2009, their sales rose 44% over 2008, according to iSuppli. On March 12, Nokia estimated that such suppliers sold 120,000 units last year.

We've written about well-known entrepreneurs like Aaron Patzer, Bret Taylor, Christophe Bisciglia, and Max Ventilla in past reports, so we're looking for fresh faces. Tell us your nominees by March 19. We'll publish a report based on the results in late April.

Searches done on ten “sensitive” keywords in the Mandarin language on Google.cn, the company’s Chinese search site, yielded 52% fewer results than searches for the same keywords on the uncensored, English-language site, the analysts said in a research report on March 5. That confirms the censors are still in effect. And there may actually be a higher level of filtering on Google.cn now than there was in January, when Piper Jaffray found 40% fewer search results on the censored search engine for the same ten keywords.

The likelihood that Google will shutter Google.cn has diminished to 50% from 70%, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster writes in a research note.

The results of this study are line with reports that the company’s executives are in talks with Chinese officials, and are waiting to lift censorship in the country until the parties reach some resolution. Google employs hundreds of people in its Beijing offices, and some analysts take recent actions – such as looking to hire new workers there and introducing new mobile products – as signals that it intends to keep operating in the country to some capacity.

Still, it’s unclear how Google and China could reach a compromise, as the search giant remains resolute in its ultimatum. Google deputy general counsel Nicole Wong t Google vice president and deputy general counsel Nicole Wong told the US Senate Judiciary Committee on March 3 that the company is "firm in our decision that we will not censor our search results in China and we are working towards that end."