Blaast - next Skype or hype?

By Vasudev Ram - dancingbison.com | @vasudevram | jugad2.blogspot.com

I got to know about Helsinki, Finland-based Blaast via Twitter.

This may be the best place to start checking them out - their about page:

http://blaast.com/about

Excerpts from their about page:

[
Most people aren’t connected to the Internet today but when they do finally get online, they’ll use a mobile phone.
...
Right now though, smart phones are just too expensive for emerging markets. That’s where Blaast comes in: we’re bringing mobile apps and a smartphone user experience to the next billion people.
...
Through a series of unique distribution partnerships, Blaast is working together with mobile network operators. In effect, this creates a unique subscription based app store offering, one which offers developers recurring revenues in addition to huge subscriber bases.
...
Blaast is funded by the founding engineers of Skype, Veturi Venture Accelerator and top European and Asian angels.
]

(Their technical model seems to be partly about splitting the mobile app functionality between the mobile device and the cloud (on the back end). And the apps are written completely in JavaScript, on both front end (device) and back end.)

Also check these links about Blaast:

Blaast Raises Funding, On Track For A Blowout Year:

http://www.arcticstartup.com/2011/03/02/blaast-raises-funding-on-track-for-a-blowout-year

Mobile Cloud Startup Blaast Raises Seed Money:

http://gigaom.com/2011/03/01/mobile-cloud-startup-blaast-raises-seed-money/

From that GigaOm post:

"The Wall Street Journal recently quoted ABI Research analyst Mark Beccue suggesting that the number of mobile phone users who access apps through the cloud will rocket from 42.8 million in 2008 to nearly 1 billion by 2014."

The Blaast Twitter account:

http://twitter.com/#!/blaast

Blaast is hiring:

http://blaast.com/jobs

Blaast developer site:

https://developer.blaast.com

- - Vasudev Ram @ Dancing Bison

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