A Mercury News article mentions a number of companies of interest to VCs. Jajah and Rebtel offer services for cheap long distance calling. Jajah, based in Menlo Park, is well funded by Silicon Valley heavyweights like Sequoia Capital and Globespan Capital Partners. Jajah is apparently already profitable after 6 months in operation. Rebtel, which is currently seeking funding, is a Stockholm-based company that makes it very easy for the pesky non-converging people—i.e., those without a laptop and an all-IP set up at home—to take part. It allows people to access the service without needing to access their PCs. Just sign up, get the local phone number for the people you wish to call, and your calls are treated like a local call. Other companies mentioned are Nimbuzz, offering instant messaging and later a flat rate global call rate for mobile-to-mobile calls, and SoonR, which allows cell phones to access desktop applications and instant messaging programs. See the full story.

Strategy Analytics reinforces the changes required in segmentation of consumer target markets to cater to connected digital life behavior. Thinking differently is more important than ever. The value of major age categories like baby boomers and the like has been low even before, but when assessing what to offer and to whom and how in the digitized life category of offerings, it is clear that there are segments but they do not align with our age.

Strategy Analytics has come up with segments like Prudent Nesters, who are late adopters but view the Internet as a vital communications tool, or Connected Aspirers, who have the strongest interest in technology but only adopt products at an average rate. Affluent Technostyles, who make up about 10% of households (developed world - 8 countries in Europe and the US), have twice the ownership and usage rates for many digital products compared with the average consumer.  See the full story.

As 4G begins to gain momentum, pushed by companies like Intel, Samsung and NTT DoCoMo of Japan, optimists as well as skeptics abound.  Ubiquitous 1 gigabit speeds are the new promised land of the Internet, where an entire movie can be downloaded in 6 seconds!  WSJ’s summary covers the general state of affairs as 4G standards are scheduled to begin coming out at a Geneva conference in 2007.  The LEF Connected World offers a graphical snapshot of this evolutionary process on page 30 of the report.

Samsung’s conference prototype on a bus ride offers an initial glimpse of things to come.  Your public transportation commute to work might become even more productive in the years to come.

Sony’s mylo (“my life online”) is another new gadget that blurs the lines between phone, computer and entertainment center.  The trick with mylo is it uses VoIP (Skype) and a Wi-Fi connection rather than a cellular connection.  So no monthly access fees, but you have to be near an 802.11b hotspot for it to work.  Key features are voice, IM and Web e-mail.  The device, announced in August, reminds us of the impending meeting (clash?) between Wi-Fi and cellular.  Will they co-exist, compete or converge?  (See “Fixed-Mobile Convergence” in the Connected World report, p.31.)  Good mylo review here.

In a $4 billion deal Motorola has just expanded its technology portfolio for the enterprise market. Symbol is well know for its ruggedized devices but also has other elements for a mobile infrastructure, like RFID and mobility management. Motorola Chairman and CEO Ed Zander commented, “Everything is going digital, and everything digital is going mobile” in describing the importance of this purchase to Motorola. See the full story.