Slowly, but surely the real issues are starting to come out at Nokia World. And it’s really all about the software at the end of the day. Which makes one wonder – are we at the right event?

First. Nokia’s new flagship touchscreen mobile the N8, which is clearly an excellent device in terms of hardware, still won’t even ship with the Ovi Store pre-installed as a matter of course. On many version the store will have to be be downloaded and installed, according to representatives at Nokia World.

Are the knives out at Nokia or are executives voluntarily jumping off the cliff? Either way, Nokia Chairman Jorma Ollila is the latest to tell the board that he will serve until the company’s 2012 annual general meeting. The news comes less than a week after CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo announced he would step down on Sept. 21 in favor of former Microsoftie Stephen Elop. Annssi Vanjoki, head of mobile solutions only said he was off yesterday. These changes are happening uncharacteristically quickly at Nokia. I hope you’re keeping up at the back.

Seedcamp, the roving pan-European startup programme which seems to have the momentum of a juggernaut these days, kicked off its big week this week in London at University College London with a record number of teams, 23 this year picked from 900 applicants, and over 100 mentors taking to teams from 16 regions throughout EMEA. And already there are general themes emerging from the teams presenting.

Saving businesses money is one major theme – important in a recession: Thus Albia has an automated testing platform for software development. Getagreatboss gets feedback from employees on their bosses, but maybe helps to retain those great bosses in tough times.

Plus, fashion startups are a trend in their own right as they start to address the rather antiquated fashion world. Editd analyses web and trend data for fashion companies to enable trend forecasting. Product discovery and price comparison was represented by Hypezoo, Ineze, Nuji, as well as FinanceACar, which compares alternative financing for new cars.

“Data” startups are also a trend. In the UK there is Timetric and now Seedcamp reflects that trend, showcasing companies like GIS Cloud and Uberblic.

The problems of the media world are also being address by startups like Publisha (digital pubishing made easy) and Sparkeo (monetising expert online video).

But there is one elephant in the room which (almost) dare not speak its name: where were the really ‘big play’ consumer startups?

Jessica Ratcliffe was a young girl of 15 when she came up with an idea for a web site where gamers could swap games in a way that made the transaction fair and kept costs low. Five years later, after being set back a couple of times, she’s had the tenacity to get the idea off the ground even while at university. It’s clear Europe needs entrepreneurs like Ratcliffe.

GaBoom (@GaBoomTweet) is a user-to-user video game exchange which has now launched into open beta.  Last night Ratcliffe appeared on prime-time TV show Dragon’s Den, but we caught up with her in a video interview above, just before the show to get the low-down on Gaboom.

This is a guest post by Zeshan Ghory (@zeshanghory), a CRM consultant and co-founder of social gifting platform Wraply.com.

Last week, flash sales site Secretsales.com (one of the many vente-privee clones to have sprung up in recent years) had been advertising an upcoming 50% discount Apple iPad sale.

The usual business model here relies on getting unsold wholesale stock from retailers and brands at knock-down prices and selling it on to members of your “private club” benefiting the original brand by clearing inventory without damaging the brand’s reputation. In the case of the sought after iPad, getting severely discounted stock wouldn’t have been possible and so it’s almost certain that this was an intentional loss-making promotion.

On top of the sale itself, there was a strong viral element, with people encouraged to inform friends about the deal, with a prize (an iPad!) on offer for those who did refer sign-ups.

A, perhaps salient, short story by Rudyard Kipling, details the rise of a humble army Sargeant in the Anglo Indian wars to the point where he commands a kingdom, albiet briefly. It appears Anssi Vanjoki, head of Nokia’s smartphones between July and, er, yesterday, may, just possibly, have considered himself the rightful heir to the Nokia throne, prior to the installment of Mr. Elop. So, by way of some sort of tribute, we present for you the wisdom of the man who would be Nokia’s King, as transmitted through his tweets:

Wavebreak, which produces broadcast quality HD royalty free film footage and animation, has raised €350k of funding led by the Bank of Ireland Seed and Early Stage Equity Fund managed by Kernel Capital. Specifically, the fund put in €250k with the remainder coming through Enterprise Ireland.

Founded in 2006, Cork-based Wavebreak, a former InterTradeIreland Seedcorn national finalist, boasts a catalogue of over 13,000 HD stock videos and 25,000 animations/photographs. The startup sells its downloadable stock media through a global distribution network that includes major distributors such as Getty Images and Corbis Motion. Customers include FoxSports, Channel 4, MTV, the ITN group, Walkers Crisps and Aldi.

With one day to go before Nokia World, the Finnish handset maker’s annual shindig, the perception to the outside media is of a corporate family in crisis.

First up, despite being scheduled to give a keynote speech, we learn that current Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo has been ousted, to be replaced by Stephen Elop, formerly of Microsoft Corp., although Elop won’t come on-board till after Nokia World.

Then, just this morning, it’s announced that Anssi Vanjoki, penned by some as the ‘Steve Jobs of Nokia’, has handed in his resignation – great timing, eh? – despite being charged with heading up the company’s Mobile Solutions division as recently as July. I can only speculate that Vanjoki wasn’t amused that he didn’t get a look in for the top job or that he was unhappy that Olli-Pekka was forced out.

Slicethepie, the web-based artist financing engine that lets musicians and bands raise money to make a professional record, has partnered with Fontana Distribution, the “indie” arm of Universal Music Group Distribution. The arrangement will see Fontana act as a sort of A&R middle-person by recommending the best Slicethepie artists to their network of over 80 labels across the U.S. each month, thus offering the potential for an actual record deal or at least formal, albeit, independent label distribution.

Though comparable to other crowdfunding platforms, such as Sellaband, Slicethepie mixes social features in which fans help discover new talent and offer funding through a stock exchange system where they can also trade their artist investments.

Imagine if Jonathan Ive, the designer of the Mac and the iPhone, walked out of Apple one day before its world developer’s conference? Well that’s the kind of impact of the resignation today of Anssi Vanjoki, who has announced his departure one day before Nokia World, the company’s major annual event. Vanjoki was widely seen as being the potential ‘Steve Jobs” of Nokia – a product obsessive who could get things done. There’s no sign he’s left for another job and the short press release contains no words of thanks from colleagues. Wow.

Vanjoki only recently (as in, July) became the company’s Mobile Solutions leader – the one guy that was poised to knock heads together and turn Nokia back into a major smartphone player against the iPhone and Android. But no more.

Blyk, the mobile messaging media startup that works with mobile operators to link 16-24 year olds with brands, has closed a large 17 Million Euro financing round lead by Nexit Ventures and a consortium of others investors. The investment will be used to accelerate Blyk’s strategic partnering with mobile operators and expand. It already partners with Orange and Vodafone.

In 2009 Blyk famously dumped its direct UK service in favour of partering. The 17 Million Euro equity investment is one of the largest single investment rounds lead by a Nordic investor in the tech space for the last five years. Other participants in the round include existing investors.

Emi Gal is an entrepreneur, blogger and internet consultant. He started his first “business” at the age of 10, creating business cards for the teachers in his school. Currently he’s the CEO of Brainient, a video technology company focused on helping video publishers make more money with their video content. This is a guest post.

Next week, 23 lucky startups will attend Seedcamp Week, probably the best event of its kind in Europe. Three hundred mentors – entrepreneurs, angels investors, marketers, technology people – will be all eyes and ears, trying to help these startups become successful companies.

I think I still hold the record for the entrepreneur with the most Seedcamps under his belt, having won Mini Seedcamp Paris 2009, attended Mini Seedcamp London 2009 and won Seedcamp Week 2009, so I’d like to share some tips to the 23 entrepeneurs that will be on stage on Monday.

Nokia is replacing Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, who proved unable to address the phone-maker’s loss of the smartphone crown in the last few years, with Stephen Elop, formerly of Microsoft Corp. Nokia has two main issues to address: a steep loss in earnings and a market share in leading edge mobiles that is being assaulted by iPhone/Android/RIM. Its share price is consequently taking a beating. And let’s not forget the ongoing nightmares of leaked of protoypes, loss of its fanboys, and its CTO.

But at least Elop is sounding a realistic tone: “My role as leader of Nokia is to lead this team through the period of change, take the organization through this period of disruption…to meet the needs of its customers, while delivering superior financial performance,” Elop said at a news conference in Helsinki, reports the WSJ.

Mr. Elop was formerly the head of Microsoft’s business division. He starts on September 21, at a tricky time – Nokia World (the firm’s annual talkfest London) is only next week so he will be unable to make a Steve-jobs-like entrance onto the stage and set a new tone for the organization.

Adfonic, the European-based global mobile advertising marketplace, following a cash injection last year and an undisclosed second round funding from a private investor, has taken on new senior hires in the UK and US and moved to new London offices in Mayfair. Adfonic enables advertisers to bid for display advertising space on mobile sites and applications and publishers to monetise mobile traffic.

Recent London based appointments include Toni Davison who joins from AOL as Head of Ad Operations and Nicola Reed, previously with TradeDoubler, who joins as Head of Marketing. Over in the US, Jim McNamara joins Adfonic as Head of New Business Development, North America to spearhead Adfonic’s US operations.

Former UK apprentice TV star Michelle Dewberry has been dabbling around the edges of the tech scene the last couple of years but until now she’s concentrated on a media play, Chiconomise, centred around hand-picking nice deals for women on a budget (a recession friendly idea, no?). But we’ve finely won our Michelle over to the Good Side of The Force, now that she’s launched an automated aggregator for all the best UK group buying and offers-based sites: The Daily Chic.

Together with business partner Vicky Zadeh she says she “originally had an eye on the daily deal space after seeing WOOT’s success. When I noticed Groupon I wanted to set up a daily deal site but realised there was a new one launching (and going bust) every day.” The Daily Chic was born to stand on top of all those deals sites.

The site covers Groupon, Groupola, KGB, Wahanda, Crowdity, living social, wowcher and Glamoo – other words all the main players in the UK.

With the advent of the iPad and the plethora of cheaper Android tablets that are due to flood the market over the coming months, there’s an increasingly popular theory in the tech industry: the days of the dedicated e-reader are numbered.

Last week we published the latest forecasts from Informa Telecoms & Media analysts that said as much. Sales of ‘smartbooks’ (a loosely defined term) are expected to grow from 3.65 million in 2010 to nearly 50 million in 2014, or over 50% of all embedded device sales. The losers will be dedicated e-readers, such as the Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader, and the winners, multifunctional portable devices like the iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab.

The reasoning – and it’s convincing – is that e-book content is now available on most multifunctional devices like mobiles and tablets that work well enough as book readers, while having other functions.

A bit of M&A is going on in the social media sector. Syncapse Corp. a specialist in social media technology, has acquired Nudge Social Media, a London-based social media development firm which was half startup, half developer for social campaigns, Facebook fan pages, applications and games on social networks for brands and agencies. Terms were not disclosed.

The move means Syncapse can now expand into the EMEA region. Nudge’s current clients, including Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever, JustGiving,PhotoBox, The Carphone Warehouse, and Domino’s Pizza

Glam Media is flexing its M&A muscle overseas. Today, it is acquiring German men’s Web property Fantastic Zero from the digital division of German media giant Holtzbrinck and European marketing agency Publigroupe.

Fantastic Zero is a collection of 50 male oriented sites with a reach of 5.5 million unique visitor a month in Germany, and 10 million overall. The acquisition price is not being disclosed, but it is a decent sized acquisition for Glam, which started in the U.S. as a collection of female-oriented sites and a larger ad network. Glam is already the the sixth largest Web property in the U.S. with a reach of 98 million uniques in August, coming up fast on No. 5 AOL’s 107 million (comScore). Fantastic Zero won’t help in the U.S., but it will worldwide, where Glam has a reach of 170 million uniques.

The acquisition helps Glam not so much on the numbers, but in its attempt to broaden out to men. A year ago it launched Brash, and more recently, BrashSports.

Mobile social network Flirtomatic (“the world’s number one flirting company”) today announced somewhat of a milestone: It’s passed the 3 million global user mark and, perhaps more noteworthy, recently surpassed 1 million users in the U.S.

Furthermore, citing a study by the mobile media measurement firm Ground Truth, the London-based company says that over the summer, Flirtomatic accounted for 65% of the season’s audience for mobile dating in the US (I didn’t know dating sites had seasons), out flirting traditional players such as eHarmony and match.com.

In a bid to cash in on the popularity of ‘casual gaming’ on Facebook, the interactive music startup MXP4 is jumping on the uber-social networking site, rolling out 15 apps for major artists including David Guetta, Big Boi, Hot Chip and Enrique Iglesias.

The idea being that artists and labels can now offer a music solution on their Facebook page that moves beyond traditional streaming and, perhaps, compete more effectively for users’ attention over the likes of Farmville. Well, that’s the aim anyway.

MXP4’s Facebook apps offer fans an “immersive, social-music experience” through a video game-like interface in which they can create an on-the-fly “remix” or use the sing-a-long karaoke functionality where they have the option to mute the original vocal and provide their own.