Funambol to serve mobile ads in its portal

Open source mobile messaging software producer Funambol recently announced that it will serve mobile ads in its online portal myFUNAMBOL. For those of you that don’t know Funambol, here is a small intro.

Funambol is famous for its mobile 2.0 messaging software which is considered probably the best push email solution for mobile phones today. Mobile enthusiasts rate Funambol better than Apple MobileMe and the sync apps available for Blackberry. It supports over a billion devices including iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile.

Now, back to the news. Funambol says the ads served will not be overtly prominent or intrusive in nature. Mobile users will find ads in their inbox and message viewing screens. Funambol believes that this is perhaps the best idea to monetize its service in the most effective manner. There are two reasons for this.

First, mobile users absolutely love Funambol. It is really easy to use and it is one of the best push email apps for mobile phone today. So, they won’t mind a few ads here and there as long as it doesn’t bring down the quality of user experience.

Second, finding ads in inbox is not at all uncommon. Gmail has been doing it ever since its inception and people have had no problem with that whatsoever. So, similarly, they won’t find the ads in myFUNAMBOL intrusive or disturbing.

In my opinion, this is a welcome move. As Funambol is an open source project, they need to monetize it one way or the other to stay in the competition. And as long as people find their service useful, I think they probably won’t mind these ads.

What do you think? Will you say okay to a few ads in your inbox if you get to use such open source mobile apps for free or at a very low cost? Share your thoughts.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones.

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