Its the start of another month, and time, once again, to look back at the highlights of the last few weeks in the world of mobile marketing. As ever, it was an action-packed month, and as ever again, mobile advertising featured prominently.
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), released its global Mobile Advertising Guidelines, which are designed to encourage the uptake of mobile advertising by brands worldwide, while enhancing and protecting the customers experience.
Meanwhile, media analyst Screen Digest released its report, Mobile media advertising opportunities: The market for advertising on TV, video and games. The report concludes that the market for rich media advertising on mobile will reach $2.79 billion (1.4 billion) by 2012, with global Mobile TV advertising accounting for the lions share at $2.44 billion.
Ad-funded mobile network Blyk revealed that it had signed up its 100,000th member, five months ahead of schedule, while mobile social network itsmy.com announced that it had signed up its 1 millionth registered user.
Bango released mobile ad statistics that showed that banner and text ads on mobile websites typically have a click through rate of 2-8% with a conversion rate of 2-5% rising to as high as 12% on some networks. Furniture retailer Harveys would be unlikely to argue with those figures. It published results  from its mobile vouchering trial in association with soap opera, Coronation Street, which the brand sponsors. Over a 13-day trial period, 30% of viewers who requested a mobile voucher went on to redeem in one of Harveys stores, peaking at 50% on some days. Nice.
The mobile web was in the news too, as the findings from the third Orange Digital Media Index Shows showed the mobile Internet becoming a part of day-to-day life, with a 35% increase in page impressions.
Jewellery retailer Fameo will be pleased with those figures. It announced the launch of the first British mobile jewellery catalogue, a new mobile service thats designed to allow anyone with a GPRS or 3G phone to browse Fameo jewellery offers, monitor their order status, research information and get customer service on the go.
And if you havent got round to building your mobile website yet, theres really not much excuse, as  Refresh Mobile unveiled Mippin Maker, an entirely free service that creates a perfectly-rendered mobile edition of a publishers website and allows the publisher to generate revenue from mobile immediately. Refresh also introduced a free games service for users of its Mippin portal, offering users access to a portfolio of over 800 free mobile games.
Elsewhere, mobile back up service Mobyko launched its dynamic online gallery for storing and sharing mobile photos, videos and texts, from the mobile phone. Enterprise marketing software company Neolane announced the availability of MMS and WAP-push communications within its multichannel customer marketing platform, adding to traditional channels such as email, direct mail, telemarketing and SMS.
Esendex announced the launch of the SMS Developer Challenge 2008. The competition gives developers the chance to show off aspiring ideas in the world of text messaging with the winning entrant receiving a cash prize of 1,000, and a chance of commercial success.
Microsoft unveiled the latest version of Internet Explorer Mobile, which adds desktop-grade web browsing to Windows Mobile phones. Microsoft also announced Windows mobile 6.1, an update for its Windows Mobile software that includes new time-saving features, easier phone navigation and management, and increased security safeguards.
Velocity Mobile, a collaboration between one of the worlds largest notebook computer manufacturers Inventec Corporation, and a team of veteran wireless designers and engineers, took the wraps off its first Microsoft Windows Mobile phones, the Velocity 103 and Velocity 111. The company says it aims to shift the way people view and use Smartphones, combining Western design philosophy and Eastern manufacturing efficiencies to bring no-compromise experiences and value to consumers.
And GoldSpot Media announced the launch of Trial-in-a-Box, which it says is the first rapid prototyping platform providing a controlled environment for evaluating the profitability of targeted, interactive mobile broadcast TV advertising models
Phew. And believe us, weve barely scratched the surface of everything thats been going on these past few weeks. If you want to keep up with all the mobile marketing news in the next few weeks, you know where to come.

David Murphy
Editor