Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

The Mobile Premier Awards event that takes place in Barcelona on February 15 has announced the 20 finalists to their Awards in Innovation. They were chosen by an international jury of the most recognized mobile industry experts and will pitch their idea on Feb. 15 in front of a group of investors, operators, media companies, peer entrepreneurs and influential bloggers.

This year’s finalists are considered the best overall startup innovation chosen by their peers in partnership with MobileMonday:

MobileMonday Austria - Mobilizy

• Mobilizy is leading the way for commercial augmented reality and is the creator of the WIKITUDE World Browser, which is one of the first practical augmented (AR) mobile applications available world-wide.

MobileMonday Barcelona - fonYou

• fonYou’s mission is to reinvent mobile telephone for the internet era. The company's business model, “Online Mobile Telephony,” allows users to configure their mobile telephone services online and gives them access to their call records, SMS and voicemails as if they were emails.

MobileMonday Berlin - spendino

• spendino provides an integrated mobile and internet fundraising solution, especially for around 230 leading Non-Profit-Organizations, but also for about 500,000 small charities in Germany which are not fundraising yet, due to initial setup an high processing costs.

MobileMonday Bogota - RedSalvavidas

• RedSalvavidas aims to save lives using mobile phones. Their mission is to prevent and respond to future natural disasters by providing a new platform for emergencies, starting with mobile technology, internet and social networks.

MobileMonday Chennai - mobiSiteGalore

• mobiSiteGalore allows anyone to easily build, publish and share full-fledged mobile websites just by using a basic mobile phone connected to the Internet.

MobileMonday Copenhagen - Cepa Mobility

• Cepa Mobility is engaged in user-centered IT development for people with motor disabilities.

MobileMonday Edinburgh - Mobile Acuity

• Mobile Acuity is a technology company enabling Mobile Visual Search applications for retailers and interactive campaigns using Visual Interactivity for brands and agencies.

MobileMonday Estonia - TaxiPal

• TaxiPal is the first multi-lingual taxi ordering and brokering service, running on all popular mobile device platforms, initially with EU coverage that will change how taxis are ordered.

MobileMonday Lithuania - SendFlow

• SendFlow is a web-based platform that lets you create, broadcast and manage interactive SMS text and Voice messages.

MobileMonday London - Audioboo

• Audioboo is a platform for the creation, management and sharing of "Boos" or short audio clips.

MobileMonday Milan - Soundtrckr

• Soundtrckr lets you discover new artists and meet new people based on where you are and what you're doing in the present moment.

MobileMonday Munich - Aloqa

• Aloqa is a mobile service that proactively notifies you of interesting places, events, and Facebook friends near you, without having to search.

MobileMonday New Delhi - Voicetap Technologies

• Voicetap is a startup in the Mobile Value Added Space. The company creates technical solutions which help people in their day-to-day lives.

MobileMonday New York - PercentMobile

• PercentMobile is a fully hosted mobile analytics service that measures and analyzes the mobile traffic to your Desktop or Mobile Web Site.

MobileMonday Oslo - Bipper Communication

• Bipper makes any mobile phone safer and better adapted to kids, and gives parents ease of mind.

MobileMonday Rest of EMEA - Layar

• The Layar Browser is a free application on your mobile phone which shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of reality through the camera of your mobile phone (iPhone 3GS or Android).

MobileMonday Silicon Valley - CloudMade

• CloudMade provides a commercial-grade mapping platform based on OpenStreetMap that enables developers and organizations to create innovative geo-enabled products.

MobileMonday Slovenia - Visionect

• Visionect developed a unique thin client handheld device that will work for months without recharging and can be used in any industry.

MobileMonday Stockholm - MoSync

• The vision for Mobile Sorcery with MoSync is to make it easy, fast and cost efficient to develop mobile applications over a broad range of devices and platforms. The company's goal is to enable developers to spend the majority of their time and effort to develop the actual applications.

MobileMonday Tel Aviv - waze

• Waze is a free mobile navigation application that allows drivers to build and use live maps, real-time traffic updates and turn-by-turn navigation to improve their daily commute.

AppBoy is a social network for mobile app developers that can be used for promotion, discussion, and exploration. Once joining, users can add their apps to the store, and even create their own custom store with apps they like. If any are sold, that user will earn 5% commission. What's important is the ideas page, which allows brainstorming around mobile needs and possible future apps. Ideas are bubbling, currently a location based to-do list, kaoss pad, and mall map are hot.

[via mashable]

What is possible with 1000 mobile phones and 53 different ring-tones? One answer would be a beautiful reproduction of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture. Vodafone's effort hit the web hard late last week, and proves the attention true innovation can provide.

By taking elements that are available to us and connecting seemingly irrelevant ideas, we can take something considered stagnant and transform it into something useful and inspirational. It also goes to show the role mobile technology is taking in our modern folklore.

Recently we discussed how the auto industry could soon implement a network technology that will improve the way we use our automobiles. Already on the market are cell phone and Wi-Fi networks that aid in a completely hands-free communication.

The automotive industry is ready for the kind of apps that have revolutionized the mobile space over the last year, according to a report released from iSuppli. The appeal for app technology while in-car makes sense. Drivers could use such offerings for navigation purposes or locating reference points, such as a dealership for repairs, while passengers can play video games or access a social network.  According to Earth2Tech, a handful of automakers, like BMW, Nissan, Ford, GM, and Honda, have developed specific services using an iPhone app. WSJ calls it “the coolest way to pay” where consumers of the Mercedes Benz app use it to make a car payment, view their accounts, and find out how much they have left to pay on the car.

As smartphone app users are increasingly connected, we can also soon expect a host of other services with platforms cross-fertilizing with TV, portable music players, and gaming devices. For example, BMW recently unveiled a new app store that enables delivery of services directly to the vehicle or via a PC. At last month’s Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany, Nokia presented a smartphone integrated into the car’s dashboard computer system, and Parrot talked of plans to build an Android-based device that offers a complete implementation of smartphone features to the automobile.

We are at the early stages of planning for a fully connected automobile experience and automakers cleverly innovating for the future. If watching the road ought to be the most important thing on our mind, we will see how these additions enhance or distract our driving experience.

This is the second in a series of posts contributed by our friends at CScout, who are giving our readers an exclusive peek at content from their subscription-only Mobile Trendpool.

Japanese firm Universal Robot has created a Microsoft Innovation Award-winning mobile application that can authenticate users by scanning their wrist veins, and without any special camera.

The Wrist Vein Authentication software has been specifically developed for mobile phones, with software that takes a mere 40kb of space and uses the device's built-in camera to scan. In addition, it can be used in a natural way since the software can detect different angles yet still accurately read the veins.

Along with mobile fingerprint and face-scanning technology, vein authentication is being promoted as an even more efficient way to identify users, especially on mobile phones.

Right now, Japanese ATMs use similar technology to identify users, so the prospect of getting consumers to accept the same functionality on a mobile device is seemingly better.

Similar technology is also being utilized to recognize real-world items in order to gain more digital information about them. Scanning a corporate logo or product could bring users to the appropriate homepage on the mobile web.

URobot claims that its software, when installed in handsets, can get results in 3 seconds versus 30 seconds for programs that need to access the server. This is an important factor for winning over consumers, as current options can be slow.

Trend potential

Consumers want safety for their information, but they also want fast and easy operation. Promoting this technology as being as strong as bank ATM security, but portable, can be just the way to start winning over safety-minded users.

CScout's Mobile Trendpool is a one-stop portal that combines the latest mobile innovations with big picture consumer trends on a global scale. Email subscribe@trendpool.com for more information on pricing and bundles.

This past Tuesday we attended the first discussion in PSFK’s Good Idea Salons for 2009. Inspired by a book PSFK is launching soon, Good Idea Salons are meant to foster conversation and innovation between experts and readers. This particular session focused on Good Ideas in Mobile and was moderated by our own Allison Mooney. Speakers included Steve Roberts of ShopText, Alistair Fulton of Deloitte, Kevin Slavin of area/code and Florain Peter of CScout.

The panelists spoke, audience members asked questions, and interesting ideas were thrown around. Here are some that got our brains thinking:

• People are losing their trust in banks. Young people especially are not concerned with the physical location of banks but rather with the convenience of online banking services. Because of these factors, mobile banking stands to gain a large percentage of banking activity in the U.S. and has done so in many countries around the world.
• GPS information was incredibly difficult to access prior to the iPhone. Carriers who spent money investing in this technology were reluctant to give it up and it is now the handset makers that are revolutionizing the industry. The availability of GPS has resulted in a seismic shift that has pushed the capabilities of what is possible on a mobile phone.
• The prevalence of location based technology has fostered a bottom build in information, application and service. Basically, we now have all this really cool data coming out of “the people” and we can use it to make really cool applications.

You can check out the video of Good Ideas in Mobile here.

The salons are being held every Tuesday and Thursday at Another Anomaly in Soho, tickets are $40. If you are interested in learning more, Good Ideas in Collaboration is coming up next Tuesday. Check it out for yourself.