http://www.admob.com/google

Yes finally it has happened… we have speculated for years exactly when would Google munch AdMob. I guess that they held out till the right time… the $750 million time.

I am personally very excited to see this finally happening. Having worked with AdMob for several years it is great to see a good idea and great execution paying off in the mobile arena. AdMob have really set up a great business and are pleasant to work with. So for me it is a great news to see them joining with Google who has really made forays into the mobile sphere with Android over the past year or two.

Watch a demonstration of applications from the Apple App Store built using Flash technology:

Flash Professional CS5 will enable you to build applications for iPhone and iPod touch using ActionScript 3. These applications can be delivered to iPhone and iPod touch users through the Apple App Store.*

A public beta of Flash Professional CS5 with prerelease support for building applications for iPhone is planned for later this year. Sign up to be notified when the beta starts.

Learn more in http://www.adobe.com/iphone/

Courtesy of Brian J. Friedman

The source code for the kernel that powers the Symbian OS now officially open sourced under the Eclipse Public License. This was something Nokia pledged to do when it acquired the remaining 52% stake in Symbian early June of 2008.

Early this year, Nokia announced it would be using a GNU/Linux based Maemo for their high end smart phones with Symbian pushed down to serve their mid-range offerings.

Some wise tips on “Designing Mobile Widgets” by Rajesh Lal, Senior Engineer, Nokia shared at 2009 Maemo Summit.

Growing pervasiveness of mobile widgets has created every mobile app designers a challenging role to play within a limited space. Only 1 percent of Mobile Widgets are successful.

What makes some widgets thrive and used by millions, and others with equal functionality bite the dust ?

Rajesh demystified the ‘invisible’ layer below the surface with 10 pragmatic tips, which covered some of the most useful and often ignored standard design principals and the tip & trick to apply them in mobile context.

I read an article this morning that brings home to me the fact that what is happening in the mobie space isn’t anymore just of interest to mobile related business people. I guess it signals a real coming of age.

BBC technology had an article “Battle of the smartphones begins” where they debate the pros and cons of BlackBerry, iPhone and the Pre. Was the Storm 2 or the Pre a possible iPhone killer. Of course for us mobile professionals, geeks or entrepreneurs in this space we read debates all the time like this. For us it is sort of our daily fare… but not so for the common mortal.

I felt that this was a sign that people are getting more and more attuned to the fact that mobile devices and their ecosystem of apps, mobile content and sites is of interest. This seems to me quantitative leap to what happened when Microsoft were battling it out back in the 80s and 90s where most people didn’t really participate in this battle, or even discuss it that much.

Now though people are interested in what is happening… I mean it still has some ways to go but it is becoming a topic of general news.

Research from GetJar, a major independent mobile apps store, indicates that two thirds of downloaders are in the 13 to 24 year old demographic group that is so highly sought after by marketers.

Further, one in three of users downloads at a rate of one new app per day!

In August 2009 GetJar surveyed over 13,000 users worldwide to develop a more detailed look at the the marketing impact of mobile apps.

A quick snapshot of the GetJar respondents:

• 65 per cent were in the 18-34 year old category,

• 81 per cent of respondents were male,

• 61% of consumers we’re downloading content at least 3-4 times a week, and

• 72% of consumers claimed that they are now using mobile Internet more than PC-based Internet.

SK Telecom today opened Korea’s first operator-based mobile apps store, with plans to take it global by 2011. The T Store can be accessed by more than 100 different devices with Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability(WIPI) platform, a local middleware platform installed in all Korean phones.

SK Telecom "T-Store''

It offers more than 6,500 applications, games and other content. It is open to all SK Telecom customers and by year-end will be accessible to customers of rival carriers using smartphones, a spokesperson said.

The carrier will take a 30% commission on all content sales, the same as in the Apple store, and aims to top KRW 1 trillion ($811 million) in sales by 2013.

SKT said it would “actively invest” in venture companies and developers to secure high-quality game content. It is offering free registration to application developers between now and the end of the year.

Opera Coming Soon

The words “Coming very soon: The next generation in mobile browsing” and a map jigsaw puzzle image appeared on Opera Software’s “teaser” page at opera.com/next/.

Opera used a similar page during the PR buildup leading to the release of Opera Unite. Five days before Unite’s release, Opera posted a page reading “On June 16th at 9 AM (CET) we will reinvent the Web” If Opera follows the same model this time we should expect something new in mobile browsing.

So what will it be?

Press Release San Diego – September 9th, 2009

neXva, a convergent web/mobile marketplace for free and premium mobile applications and content, is pleased to announce that The Spectrum Group, of La Jolla, California, has made a strategic investment in the Company. Joining the board and serving as neXva’s CEO is Brian J. Friedman, Managing Partner of The Spectrum Group.

neXva was founded in Paris, France in late 2008. The site will officially launch on the 2nd of November. Unlike vertical mobile application stores, neXva will distribute a large spectrum of content (apps, audio, video and goodies) across all major mobile platforms.

The neXva web and mobile sites will offer content that is both premium and free. Already more than 40 Content Providers have signed on to distribute their content across Android, Symbian, Java, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and Palm mobile platforms. neXva helps developers beta test and distribute their content with a wide geographic sample of users.

neXva’s app stores are optimized to work on all major handsets and make mobile usage a focal point.