93South - Thoughts on New England Web 2.0

In last weeks round-up on the Boston online video space, I started off by stating that the video sector was one area where Boston was gaining significant traction. However, there is yet another sector that Boston has started to capture some serious “street cred” - Mobile.

The area is full of entrants into the mobile technology space including several high-profile acquisitions like m-Qube (now part of VeriSign) that have sprouted new entrants (Quattro for example). I also discovered another event series in the area that may turn into the mobile counterpart for the Webinno series, Mobile Mondays.

Here is a list of 28 local companies that are delivering innovative products and services in the Mobile space. For this list, I could have included the multi-platform plays from online video (Gotuit, Choicestream, etc.) but I wanted to focus on companies where mobile is their primary stated business. The list is a mix of both business and consumer focused offerings from small to large. It is a list of the Boston area brightest that are attempting to capitalize on that little screen we love to hold in our hands.

If I have missed anyone, and I am sure I have, please add a comment below.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Quattro Wireless (Waltham, MA): Mobile publishing and advertising platform play launched in 2006 with a round of funding from top Highland Capital Partners. The company was founded by Andrew Miller and Eswar Priyadarshan 2 former m-Qube executives (acquired for a cool $250M last year).

m-Qube / VeriSign (Watertown, MA): m-Qube (now part of VeriSign) is a mobile channel enabler that helps companies, develop, deliver, and bill for mobile content, messaging and applications. They moved over $85M of wallpaper and ringtones in 2005 prior to their acquisition by Verisign last year for $250M!

enpcoket (Boston, MA): Founded in 2001, enpocket is a mobile marketing, personalization and advertising platform for the wireless space that has produced thousands of campaigns for top global brands They describe their service as the first mobile advertising platform that can predict and influence consumer behavior.

Third Screen Media (Boston, MA): Another in the list of “recently acquired, Third Screen Media created the the largest, single-source mobile ad network and a top web-based, mobile ad management and delivery platform. The company was acquired by AOL in May to become part of the Advertising.com group.

MobileLime/Modiv Media (Watertown & Quincy, MA): MobileLime, a VC-backed mobile marketing and promotional platform for retail, acquired Cuesol Inc.,a maker of in-store shopping software, for an undisclosed amount. The 2 will become Modiv Media soon.

Starent Networks (Tewksbury, MA): A rare public-company on the list, Starent is provider of the infrastructure used by mobile operators to provide multimedia services to their customers, such as video downloads or streaming, Internet access, voice-over-IP, e-mail, mobile TV, video and photo sharing, gaming, and others.

Groovemobile (Bedford, MA): Touted as “the world’s leading mobile music service”, Groove is one of the top local mobile plays with just about all of the major labels and carriers as partners. It provides a mobile download, peer-to-peer sharing, personalized music recommendations, and streaming radio service.

JumpTap (Cambridge, MA): Founded in 2005, Jumptap provides a a hosted, pure-mobile search solution for wireless carriers. The white-label service has customers including Alltel, Boost and Virgin Mobile. The company received a good size round of funding last October.

Everypoint (Boston, MA): Real-time mobile content and service delivery platform described as “infotainment” services. The companies who has investors including Venrock, Prism Venture Partners and TD Capital Ventures has had a recent change in CEO.

g8wave (Boston, MA): Local mobile marketing and promotions firm that assists in the planning, creation, and execution of mobile marketing campaigns, branded community applications and content distribution strategies.

Skyhook Wireless (Boston, MA): Another service that could go in a separate round-up, Skyhook uses the local WiFi networks to provide location-based services for mobile phones - very cutting edge technology sector that is going to explode soon. The company that landed $8.5M earlier this year also operates Loki.

Digit Wireless (Lexington, MA): Develops a new patented mobile phone keypad interface called Fastap. Interesting concept that I bumped into at a Red Herring event recently.

Nellymoser (Arlington, MA): Initially focused as ringtone and music marketing distribution play, Nellymoser recently morphed into a full mobile content delivery platform business with it’s IGN / Fox Interactive Deal last year. The company also lists Comedy Central, Billboard and VH1 on it’s customer roster.

Nextcode Corp (Concord, MA): Turn your mobile phone into a barcode scanner! Nextcode is pioneering new ways for mobile users to connect to content, commerce, and community applications by using the camera on select phones to read barcodes.

MoreMagic Solutions (Newton, MA): This company wins the award for the most inefficient corpo-babble on their homepage but it is a mobile payment play that that allows operators, content providers, and banks to offer consumers the ability to purchase goods and services on demand using a mobile phone.

Locomoda (Somerville, MA): Locamoda bridges the divide between the offline and mobile and fits is a great example of a location-based services play. Check out their digital graphiti site Wifiti.

iSkoot (Cambridge, MA): iSkoot raised $7M in February and is a way for Skype, Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger users make VoIP calls from over 20+ top mobile business phones. VoIP over mobile is a hot-button for the telco space and iSkoot no-doubt will make out well.

Utterz (Maynard, MA): Possibly one of my favorite local mobile startups, Utterz may also be the only startup that 93south broke. It is a side project for Foonz (which also has a mobile play as well) that allows users to share text and pics right from their phones. It’s Twitter…only better.

phling!: (Cambridge, MA): Produced by Oxy Systems, Phling! is a mobile social networking site that sounds a bit like LastFM for mobile, Users can listen to their mp3 collection on their mobile phone and let up to 6 friends in on the fun.

Buzzwire (Bedford, MA): Provides a streaming mobile media service, which lets users create their own customized audio and video programming channels for 3G mobile phones. Formerly known as 4th Media, the service just launched this week…shame on me for not covering it!

MocoSpace (Cambridge, MA): Mobile social networking service available for WAP enabled mobile phones. Think MySpace for your cell phone.

Mobicious (Needham, MA): Getting past the tough to remember play on Del.icio.us name, Mobicious.com is on online directory of all types of mobile content including videos, photos, ringtones, games and other applications. Check out the recent article on Mashable.

MStyle (Boston, MA): Mobile retail marketing platform that provides web and WAP storefronts, content delivery, custom campaigns, and direct-to-phone billing services. The company also operates mStyle.net - a consumer facing mobile content directory.

Pyxis Mobile (Waltham, MA): Provides mobile software for the financial services industry. Pyxis solutions are used by mobile financial professionals to pull business data from internal systems onto a mobile device.

Ulocate (Framingham, MA): Another location-based service provider that, according to their site provides a “mobile gateway for location across handset-based GPS systems, network-based triangulation and cell-tower location, and non-carrier location including IP-based, Wi-Fi, and component GPS devices”.

80108.com (Burlington, MA ??): 80108 is a mobile local event and info guide for a number of top US cities provide by a social media network of independent mobile correspondents who SMS text in insider tips on events, music and more for their given metros.

Mobleo (Chelmsford, MA): Mobleo is a free social bookmarking website for mobile devices that was launched in September of 2006. Mobleo.net also enables mobile phone access to a user’s bookmarks listed on other popular social bookmarking websites.

- - - - - - -

UPDATE: Locomobile is now 80108, great catch REM.

Check out the Boston Mobile 2.0 Part Deux Round-Up

Technorati tags: Boston Mobile, Mobile 2.0, Wireless, Boston Web 2.0, Startups, 80108, ulocate, mobleo, utterz, m-qube, VeriSign, Starent, Digit Wireless, Locomedia, locomobile, foonz, choicestream, mobicious, Quattro Wireless, Quattro, enpocket, Third Screen, mobilime, everypoint, groovemobile, jumptap, g8wave, skyhook wireless, nextcode, nellymoser, iskoot, phling, buzzwire, mocospace, mstyle, pyxis, cell phone, video, social netwrorking