Mobile 2.0 Europe: best-of-class startups

Written on 9th July 2008                                                                                                              5 COMMENTS
Robin Wauters, Next web enthusiast & Plugg organizer

So you already know The Next Web attended the Mobile 2.0 Europe conference and that we liked what we saw. Apart from the keynote speakers and the lively panels, we also witnessed 17 startups active in the mobile industry show the audience what they had in store.

These are the ones that caught our attention:

Zipiko is a fairly simple, but extremely sexy little application that enables you to see what your friends are planning to do, and invite them to join you. Boring, you say? Zipiko unites various aspects of Twitter, Meetup and SMS to create a simple way to organize spontaneous get-togethers, and does it in a stunningly intuitive way, making usability (and the cute fish logo) a genuine unique selling point. Watch this video to get an idea of how it works. The company behind Zipiko, Zipipop, is based in Helsinki and the international team consists of nice, business and technology savvy people. Watch this one!

Dial2do lets you do common tasks using nothing but your voice. You can use it to send e-mail or text messages, record reminders and even post updates to your Twitter or Jaiku stream, all handsfree and free of charge. All you have to do is dial your local access number for Dial2Do and the services guides you through getting whatever you want done. Dial2do works with any phone – mobile or landline, as long as you have your Caller ID enabled. Neat service that “just works”, and a strong founder / CEO with Ivan MacDonald (who’s also the co-founder of TwitterFone) who sold his previous company eWare to Computer Associates subsidiary ACCPAC.

Kooaba provides a visual search engine for mobile devices, with search results made accessible by sending a picture as query. Kooaba enables you to literally “click” on real-world objects such as movie posters, linked articles in newspapers or magazines, and in the near future even on tourist sights according to the Switzerland-based company.

Rummble is an impressive location-based social search and discovery application, which aims to enable users to find recommended content for a location easily. Rummble takes a different approach than most LBS’s and mobile social networking sites by focusing on recommendations of peers. Rummble currently functions across Web, mobile and Facebook and will hook into GPS or cell id.

Other services worth checking out: Nimbuzz (Mobile IM and Text Message Service), Unkasoft (Mobile Advergaming), Mippin (”Web Mobilizer”) and Palringo (Vocal Instant Messaging).

For the complete list of presenting startups, check out the agenda for Mobile 2.0 Europe.