For most of the people Web 2.0 is just a buzzword - round corners, a bit childish web design but nothing too special. But there are some key elements that make Web 2.0 different from yesterday’s web (Web 1.0). Major difference is that Web 2.0 websites allow users to do more than just retrieve information - people are able to create their own content and be part of democratic and organic web.

Main keywords for Web 2.0 are openness, collaboration, dynamic, interactive, context sensitive services, third party content. Vast majority of the Web 2.0 doesn’t have a good business model behind it, although recently we have seen a bit more of the ones that do. There is also a tendency that services with a business model tend to move away from Web 2.0 ideology (openness, third party content, content sensitivity). I think that Google AdSense is the best example of Web 2.0 with a great business model.

But what comes next?

I’m not talking about major buzzword Web 3.0, but we may call it Web 2.5 at least ;). We are going to see business models behind wikis, podcasts etc, so that third parties would also be able to earn revenue. We already have some great examples in that field, but this will become a MUST feature in near future. I believe that creating opportunities for third parties is the next phase in the web and it is almost here.

Context sensitivity, third party content and long tail are creating opportunities for everyone who has ideas, knowledge and will to do something. Everyone will be able to benefit from their knowledge and experience, and what’s most important - the business doesn’t have any borders or limits. One is definitely sure, mobile services are involved as well.

7th february
Vodafone & Myspace partner to develop mobile social networking

Vodafone inks an exclusive deal with MySpace allowing mobile users in the U.K. access to the social networking website on the move. The Vodafone deal with MySpace marks the first time that the Fox Interactive Media unit of News Corp. has made its MySpace.com portal available to European mobile users.

23rd february
Lanetro zed acquires Monstermob

The acquisition saga comes to an end when Monstermob shareholders vote in favor of LaNetro Zed’s proposal to take a 52 percent stake in the company. The completion of the deal ends weeks of speculation that China’s Linktone would take control of the company for $78 million, and marks the start of a major shake up of the D2C mobile content sector.

23rd April
Ntt doCoMo & napster launch unlimited mobile music service

This marks the first-ever deployment of the ground-breaking Napster Mobile service that seamlessly integrates mobile and PC, enabling users, for one low monthly fee, to access full-length songs and ringtones that can be delivered over-the-air (OTA) directly to their mobile handset for immediate listening and downloading. The service provides a blueprint for the clear convergence of Web and mobile music services, and paves the way for unique pricing and data models.

15th May
AOL enters into mobile advertising with third screen Media

The mobile advertising land grab continues with AOL snapping up mobile advertising company Third Screen Media for an undisclosed sum. The deal follows Microsoft’s acquisition of French advertising firm ScreenTonic and marks another milestone deal in a period that has seen a mad scramble for position in digital advertising.

1st June
Amp’d Mobile MVnO files Chapter 11

The dream of the content-oriented MVNO comes to an end as Amp’d Mobile files for bankruptcy protection and closes its doors a month later. The news comes just months after the high profile fall of Mobile ESPN, the Disney- owned MVNO that hoped to find a subscriber base among U.S. sports fans by delivering sports-oriented content
over the phone. Will ad-funded MVNO Blyk raise hope?

29th June
Apple launches iPhone & re-invents touch-screen technology

Steve Jobs takes the wraps off the long-awaited iPhone, a game-changing device with touch screen and a raft of features to encourage mobile browsing and content consumption. The iPhone buzz reaches Europe in the Fall, sparking a Christmas buying frenzy.

29th August
Nokia announces Ovi & a move towards internet services

Nokia reinvents itself as a mobile services company, announcing Ovi as an umbrella service for its music, games, mapping and Internet offerings. The launch ends the speculation about Nokia’s intentions in the content sector and marks a significant turning point in the handset maker’s strategy.

1st september 2007
UK. mobile payment goes live with Payforit launch

Major U.K. mobile operators jointly launch Payforit, a new payment service for mobile websites based on Vodafone m-payments. Use is limited to transactions under GBP10 and the user-experience is similar to the Internet. Could this be the initiative that jumpstarts real m-commerce development?

1st november
Nokia buys navigation mapping company navteq

Nokia pays a whopping $8.1 billion for Navteq, a satellite navigation mapping and software company. The technology is
folded into the existing Nokia Maps solution, which is spearheaded in the market by the GPS-enabled N95 Nseries device. Will this be the catalyst for mainstream location-based services (LBS) adoption?

29th november
Eu supports dVB-h mobile tV standard

The European Union formally and finally supports DVB-H as its “official” mobile TV format. The decision to support one standard is seen as an effort to promote consensus and stop market fragmentation. Signs are strong that 2008 will mark the starting point for commercial mobile TV.

by: Netsize Guide 2008 - Top 10 facts

Usually people picture SMS-services as part of web 2.0 or just web based solutions, but actually it is just one side of the SMS-services. Since the number of mobile devices in increasing all the time, SMS-billing has become a value adding solution. Cell phones are always with people and that is why people can pay for park, pay in shops, order a lightening to ski-track etc all the time notwithstanding how much cash does they have in their wallet.

Finns have came out with a great idea (read a whole article). From January people who are driving along highway 1 can open public toilets by sending a SMS. They explained that as a result of continued and endemic vandalism, the Finnish Road Administration has developed a system which allows travellers to open the doors to roadside toilets only by sending a SMS message to the number given by the Road Administration. So if you want to smash the toilet you’ll have to pay for that, the best part is that it is also possible to find out who as behind the vandalism. But if it was me I would use prepaid card

What is I-Wood?
Well a Dutch company i-wood has developed a mobile bannering concept which makes it possible to have mobile advertisement on Idle Screen of a cellular phone. Every time a user starts an application and returns to the main screen the banner advertisement changes. The number of banners is unlimited. Banners are stored locally and are synchronized periodically with the servers of i-wood.

How does the system work:
* Banner rotates after a call is made
* Banner rotates after every application
* Users can scroll through the banners
* The number of banners is unlimited
* Banners can be remotely installed
* Banner does not influence the mobile phone
* Banner statistics

Sounds nice, why do we need Android (gphone) at all ? I-wood even has quite witty promotional video, much better than Google’s

Today i was searching some practical cases about how companies have used Bluetooth marketing. Among others i managed to find quite good success story video, have a look:

It made me think how can it work even better. When you are going to buy a car it is nice to get pictures and videos about the car, but how could Bluetooth marketing bring people to buy a car. Well, there are automated parking machines everywhere, why aren’t we integrating Bluetooth marketing with those. A lot of people have hands-free system in their car with Bluetooth nowadays, it means also that Bluetooth is enabled. Just push through any car related ads and it will most probably reach the audience. To be sure we could also make the car owner pay for the parking via Bluetooth or just give out 30 minutes free parking… car owner gets free parking via Bluetooth i think you follow the pattern now. I think i can bring people to buy cars, tires or whatever.So what are we waiting for, let’s integrate Bluetooth everywhere and see what happens - do we refuse to enable Bluetooth in the future or not.

A few days ago social networking site Facebook announced mobile extension to its popular developer platform. Great move, as mobile is definitely where things are going these days. However, it seems that it’s not very stable yet, and they have rushed a bit to get this news out.

In addition to showing snippets of information on the Facebook mobile page (m.facebook.com), application developers could use the API to add SMS interaction to their applications. SMS is great for allowing instant communication with the users wherever they are. However, it has also proved of being one of the most accessible and convenient ways to collect micropayments from users. There are several success stories of social networking sites in Europe, that have made fortunes using one or two simple premium SMS services neatly tied to the otherwise free website. For example, you can make your photo appear on the front page for some time, by sending premium SMS costing let’s say €1. This amount is then added to your phone bill and mobile operator is sharing the revenue with the website.

Eric Eldon from VentureBeat wrote:

Mobile apps may be a good way to monetize, though, Shen [RockYou co-founder Jia Shen] tells us: “Lots of people are thinking about how to run micropayments through phone bills” as high schoolers don’t have access to credit cards for doing things like buying Facebook’s virtual gifts.

At its current version though, Facebook Mobile API does not seem to support premium priced SMS, nor do they share any revenue with application developers, but I’m sure they’re thinking about it. As contextual advertising does not work, I think that SMS could become one of the easiest ways to monetize Facebook apps.

This is a typical law of development - the pioneers are making something sensational and the followers are doing right after the success something quite similar. But the followers aren’t stupid, they won’t make same mistakes. They will focus on the pioneers weaknesses and make a better product with more features and benefits. It seems that LG has simply followed the rule and been “impressively innovative”. This may be just a rip of, but i’d rather buy Voyager than iPhone, mainly because 3G, but at the same time i would differ from others. Personally i don’t think Voyager will be a real competitor to iPhone, because Voyager isn’t a “lifestyle” product, but it will take some customers away indeed.

Some facts about Voyager as well:
* Voyager has a large external touch screen that also slides open sideways for a full QWERTY keypad. This gives users a choice on how they access the phone’s features

* Voyager will use Verizon Wireless’ fast 3G data network to access the mobile Internet, on the other hand iPhone uses slower AT&T Edge data network

* Voyager also comes with multimedia capabilities, including an HTML Web browser; Verizon Wireless’ V Cast mobile TV, video, and music service; and the ability to play MP3, WMA, and unprotected AAC files. For more storage room, the phone has a removable MicroSD memory slot that holds up to 8 Gbytes of memory

When iPhone become available in US tech geeks have been messing with its insides, trying to figure out how to unlock iPhone for use on networks other than AT&T’s.

Since last Monday, Apple officials have been warning iPhone owners that using unlocking software could cause the phone to become “permanently inoperable when future software update is installed.

On Friday the web was filled with complaints from people who had installed the latest update, their iPhone hacked updates were missing or even worse their phones froze up.

Jennifer Bowcock, an Apple spokeswoman, said that when people went to update their software with their computer through iTunes, a warning appeared on the computer screen. It was clear that any unauthorized modifications to the iPhone software violated the agreement that people entered into when they bought the phone.

Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, said the company wanted to maintain control over the iPhone’s functions to protect carrier networks and to make sure the phone was not damaged.

Brian Lam, editor of Gizmodo, a blog devoted to gadgets, was in other opinion. He stated that disabling someone’s phone, instead of just relocking it and to wipe out the apps, is uncharacteristically evil. It seems like Apple has gone way too far.

It is hard to draw a straight line are these actions for making money or protecting the product. At least it seems that the phenomena of Apple and iPhone has started to fade gradually after so called iPhone era.