Molecularist

Max Niederhofer has left 20six and founded another company in the social and mobile space. The team is well suited to create something cool.

What caught my eye is that they are building a dating service where the content and mobile are central for ‘lubricating’ the connections.

Good luck guys. We’re all watching now. 🙂

Link: IncrediblInc: Mobile Social Software.

IncrediblInc is a London-based mobile social software start-up. We are developing applications that connect people over the mobile internet. Our goal: boosting ARPU happiness.

Eh, bien, oui, oui, na, j’adore les pommes de terre au lard. (an obscure line from an Ionesco play)

Link: Silicon Valley goes mobile / Up to 100 startups get into the game with wireless applications for cell phones.

[quote 1] For Sievers, establishing the startup in the Bay Area was a must. "It’s less about where the (cell phone) carrier is. It’s about where are the best people and capital and open ideas to drive fresh mobile ideas," co-founder and CEO Sievers said.

[quote 2] "We’ve basically created the technology structure for the Internet here. Now as fixed line and mobile Internet converge, you’re seeing the expertise in this region come to bear that you don’t see in other places like San Diego, Atlanta or Boston," said Stephen Burke, chief managing officer of mBuzzy, a ring tone and game provider in San Mateo.

Basically: OK, OK, I get the picture!

A great series of articles from the International Development Magazine on tech and developing nations.

For the last few months, I have been thinking a lot on how mobile phones could help developing nations. The article below was given to me by a friend, Pam, who works for a development agency. I also had a great chat with Ethan Zuckerman on some cool stuff he knows is going on in Africa (and I hope to pick up the conversation in the near future).

I grew up in Brasil, my school just across one of the largest shantytowns in Rio (Rocinha). I’ve seen this stuff up front and understand the business savvy that the mobile fits into so well. Yes, my mind is spinning with thoughts on all this.

Link: Developments – The International Development Magazine – Loose talk saves lives.

When you get a mobile phone it is almost like having a card to get out of poverty in a couple of years.” So says Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the micro-credit provider, Grameen Bank, and its hugely popular mobile phone offshoot in Bangladesh, Grameen Phone.

Other articles in the same issue:

• Only Connect – intro to issue 31
• Money talks – using mobiles for money transactions for those without banks
• Blogging Ethiopia Style

Yes, I just have to make a mobile-oriented comment here.

There are 2 billion GSM subscribers. The next billion will be added in the next few years. In a year or two the industry will start selling more than a billion phones a year. Oh, and most of these mobile billions won’t have a PC.

Don’t bother trying to impress me with the number of Internet users now. I’m too busy trying to help the next billion who will come via the phone. 🙂

Link: One Billion Internet Users (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox) (tip from Johnston who got it via Coates).

Summary:
The Internet is growing at an annualized rate of 18% and now has one billion users. A second billion users will follow in the next ten years, bringing a dramatic change in worldwide usability needs.

Jakob (who of course only cares about usability) links to Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends presentation, which also points out that mobile outstrips Internet – she gets it.

Wha? Must be my ‘US operators amuse me’ day. 😀

Link: Irony and Mobile Service Requirements | 12/25/2005 | mobile jones.

In the process of ordering an N90 with T-mobile service, I ran into a big problem.  I made the switch to mobile only telephony in 2002.  T-mobile won’t process my order for new service if I don’t have a landline?  The mobile industry provides tons of services to make it easy for me to cut the cord, and so, I do.  Now, I can’t get mobile service because I’m mobile only.  Doh!