Fring has announced that an ad trial is now running on some of the users around the world.
Fring,  a free IM and VOIP client, did not seem to clock-in  much revenues, although the application is very popular.
The ads are banners at the end of the chat window as show in the picture:

The announcement is truly good news to Fring’s Business plan and business model, moreover it is an ultimate test for  the mobile advertising market.
Ads that will be displayed on millions of Fring clients, to users that come from different backgrounds, different languages, different geographies, different age groups Etc.
So how do you create an advertisement campaign on such a personal device to such a varied audience?!
Will the users click on the banners and actually perform or initiate transactions?!
Will they use the integrated VoIP engine to create calls to the advertiser?!

One thing is for sure, the mobile advertising market will have much to learn from this move, and Fring will be the first to know.

The web 2.0 was referring to the social and content rich web.
Mobile 2.0 is a common term that is used to describe many things.
It was first referring to the contextual aware network with M2M (Machine-to-Machine) direct communication.
Now it is mostly use to describe the mobile interface of the Web 2.0.
The mobile is usually used as an access channel to the web-based applications and services (there are some pure mobile services but they are too significant).
The Mobile device is a multimedia creation and consumption device for several years now.
It is only logical that the mobile device will take a part in the content creation for the Web 2.0 / Mobile 2.0 services.
Many services (like flickr) provided the means to upload to the web content from your device.
It was usually done with pictures and content that only requires a low bandwidth.
Others like many facebook applications, used a mailing mechanism with MMS (Multimedia Messaging Services) but MMS only supports files up to 300Kb so no good video of over 10 seconds can be sent and it is not immediate (just like in mail).
All solutions lacked immediacy (like you can create an immediate content with your webcam).
Qik and Flixwagon are two competitors who are battling for the title (And no, I did not forget Kyte).
Until today the battle was more or less around “who supports more devices” nevertheless, Flixwagon’s recent announcement on its partnership with Nokia may change the rules.
Nokia, with its services portal (OVI) intends to create one place where all Nokia users could upload all of their content.
With the help of Flixwagon, Nokia hopes to create the “mobile youtube” but only for Nokia users.
Qik from the other hand is still focusing on bringing the service to any device, smartphones and low-end devices as well according its latest announcement.
The new Nokia 5800 is coming with a download catalog where Qik application can be found that’s not much but it indeed is a good sign for Qik.
Both Qik and Flixwagon have yet a long way to go, until live broadcasting will turn from a niche product and go to the mainstream.

The mobile web is evolving slowly to a fully PC-like web experience.
That happened thanks to improved mobile web browsers such as Opera Mini, Nokia’s mini map, iPhone’s Safari, Etc.
But the mobile web has yet a long way to go, sites are still to be optimized and most of the browsing is still made with old-fashioned browsers.
According to Admob Motorola V3 is still the most popular device in the states in web browsing.
That’s where Moblica comes in, the company turns websites into web-apps or widgets. The wrap of websites and presenting them as applications is very similar to the way Opera mini conducts the browsing. Moblica took another step farther and re-assembled the page and the user interface in a form of an application.
Snaptu is the latest package for the UK market but it is actually available to all and everybody can find it useful.
Take the Facebook app for example, rather than browsing the m.facebook.com site you can directly access your account with Snaptu.
The interface is much better than surfing the dedicated Facebook site for mobile, it is slick, fast and most of all, it looks great.
Google Calender, Picasa, an RSS reader, and several popular UK sites are on Snaptu as well.
The major issue is that mobile users are still not used to install applications on mobile devices, although that may change soon.
Snaptu is not aimed to replace the mobile browser, and one can not turn all the web into web-apps.
The mobile web is not the same internet. We do not use the internet form our device as we do on the PC but we do need to stay connected and updated, Snaptu is great for surfing your favorite sites.

Music download became a significant component in the mobile content ecosystem after the improvement of the connectivity speed.
Download is one thing but live streaming is another story that requires a stable high speed connectivity.
While most of the user’s music is stored onto the PC, transferring music to the mobile phone became common.
Didiom’s application tries to combine those two needs to one mobile application.
As for the PC to mobile problem Didiom enable users to stream music form the PC directly to the mobile phone for free (like several products that exist for years as Orb networks and other operators’ proprietary solutions).
The streaming feature is problematic in terms of DRM.
It allows you to stream content but has anyone checked that the content was legally purchased?! The approach Didiom took is a little bit safer than other options (for them) because they locate a streamer on your computer and do not store any of the data on their servers but that approach forced them to require installation on the PC and on the mobile deivce.
The streaming feature means that all the playlists from your PC are available anywhere at any time, of course both the PC and the mobile must be connected to the internet.
Secondly the Didiom application has a music catalog with more than 2 million songs.
Lately the company announced a partnership with independent music distributor CD Baby.
Didiom’s store allows you to preview music, place a bid, or just buy new tracks and albums for you mobile, PC or both.
Payment is done using credit card with Didiom’s account or before purchasing.
The main disadvantage of the application is that you will not be able to use your original music player, but that it a small concession regarding the option to connect into your music library.

Didiom Application