GigaOM Pro

This week GigaOM Pro readers caught up on the latest developments in Silicon Valley news and looked at the near-term future of the Platform-as-a-Service market. Colin Gibbs’ big-picture analysis of last month’s Google conference, “4 takeaways from Google I/O,” was the most popular piece of content. Gibbs focuses on the major mobile strategies and product releases that came out of the much-hyped event, expressing concern about the continued fragmentation occurring among Android developers and skepticism about the near-term future prospects for Project Glass and augmented reality, as well as outlining Google’s continuing challenges in the mobile ad space.

Next GigaOM Pro readers paid attention to David Linthicum’s “PaaS market accelerators, 2012–2013.” Published just after our Structure conference and PaaS-focused Mapping Session, Linthicum’s piece serves as a primer on the emerging PaaS market, including practical uses of PaaS technologies in the enterprise and an overview of key players and technologies in the market. Finally, Linthicum provides a few near-term market predictions and a list of recommendations for any company considering PaaS providers.

Last, in “‘Unleashed’ Zynga shows steady progress,” David Card takes a look at the company’s latest efforts toward establishing itself as an independent gaming platform as Zynga continues to distance itself from Facebook and generate its own mobile and publishing strategies. Card examines some of the most important announcements that came out of Zynga’s “Unleashed” event last week and looks ahead at the company’s potential growth opportunities.

Also popular this week:

Is Android broken, and if so, will Google fix it?

The weekend review: Android, the CaaS market and the Microsoft-Yammer acquisition

What Amazon’s new Kindle line means for Apple, Netflix and online media