Most people take cell phones for granted. When we think of cell phone companies we normally think of cell phone manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Blackberry and carriers such as Sprint / Nextel, Cingular, Verizon and T-Mobile.However, there a host of other companies behind the scenes developing new cell phone technologies and applications. Companies such as Fastap who has a has a patented keypad technology that adds all letters to your cell phone keypad in addition to the numbers and loopt who built a revolutionary "social mapping" service to change the way people use mobile phones to keep in touch with their friends.

Below are just a few of the companies that are creating new cell phone technologies and applications.

3jam enables users to send a text message to any number of friends at once, have everyone know who got the message, and have the replies go to everyone. http://www.3jam.com/ AeroMobile provides mobile phone services to airlines by allowing passengers the choice and convenience of safely using their own mobile phones in flight to stay in contact with family, friends and colleagues by phone and text messaging. AeroMobile, based in Crawley, West Sussex, has developed an aircraft system which controls the power output of all mobile phones down to the minimum level allowing their safe use onboard aircraft. http://www.aeromobile.net/ Agere Systems provides semiconductors and software solutions for storage, mobility and networking markets. The company’s products enable a broad range of services and capabilities, from cell phones, PCs and hard disk drives to the world’s most sophisticated wireless and wireline networks. http://www.agere.com/

Berggi was formed by seasoned and successful mobile and Internet industry executives to provide a solution for better and more cost effective mobile phone based email, instant messaging and text messaging. Visit berggi at https://www.berggi.com/

CATS Communication, Inc., based in Irvine, CA has developed the most advanced Global Positioning System (GPS) Personal Location and Tracking system to promote child and family safety and foster family communication. CATTRAX™ solution turns a GPS cell phone into a powerful parental tool never before available. With CATTRAX™, parents can know where their child is, know where they have been, and even how fast they are traveling. They also have the ability to communicate with their child immediately, which is critical in an emergency. https://www.catscommunication.com/ Founded in 1998, Digital CycloneSM has established itself as a leader in providing personalized weather intelligence for wireless devices. Digital Cyclone's products include Pilot My-Cast® aviation weather information system, My-Cast® weather for consumers and businesses, and Weather Scout® which tailors weather for anglers and hunters and is offered through Gander Mountain stores. Digital Cyclone's products are available on selected cell phones from AT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless, Midwest Wireless, Nextel, Sprint PCS, Southern LINC, US Cellular and Verizon Wireless. The company is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. http://www.digitalcyclone.com/ .mobi is a top-level domain approved by ICANN as a sponsored TLD. It will be restricted to mobile devices and sites providing services for them. It is sponsored by a consortium of companies including 3, Ericsson, GSM Association, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Syniverse, T-mobile, Telefonica, TIM and Vodafone. As of July 2005, negotiations for its management were underway. http://www.dotmobi.org/ Energizer, Inc., offers Energi To Go(TM), a portable battery-driven devices that supply power to the majority of today's wireless phones, portable gaming devices and the Apple iPod(R). http://energizer.com/energitogo/index_flash.html eFax offers sending and receiving faxes with your PDA, Smartphone, or Blackberry®. eFax gives you a fax number that delivers faxes as email attachments. Read them anywhere! http://www.efax.com Fastap has a patented keypad technology that adds all letters to your cell phone keypad in addition to the numbers. The letters appear in alphabetical order on 26 small, raised buttons positioned at every corner between the standard keys found on a typical cell phone. http://www.digitwireless.com/

Firethorn provides mobile banking and payment solution that helps carriers and financial institutions deliver valuable services to their wireless customers. FirethornSM enables consumers to securely perform a wide variety of banking and payment functions anytime, anywhere using their mobile phone, PDA and other mobile devices. http://www.firethornmobile.com/

Gentag has patented using a cell phone as a universal reader for disposable wireless sensors. The powerful combination of Gentag's patented cell phone-sensor reader technology with Gentag's disposable wireless sensor platform will enable a multitude of innovative applications, providing consumers with easy and instant access to vital information over established wireless networks, the Internet and client-specific databases. http://www.gentag.com/ Global Care Quest offers ICIS Mobile which gives members of the medical team access to patient information even when they're caring for patients in multiple locations, or traveling outside the facility. With a wireless PC, handheld device or smartphone, clinicians get instant access to patient data-rounding notes, lab results, x-rays, CT scans, even real-time waveforms and vitals stats from bedside monitoring devices. http://www.globalcarequest.com/ iLane provides users with a hands-free and eyes-free, voice-interactive solution for managing email messages and attachments, phone calls, SMS messages and calendar appointments while in transit. iLane integrates seamlessly with your car's audio system. So as new messages arrive on your handheld device, iLane notifies you immediately, then reads a summary aloud. Using voice commands you can then listen to the entire message; compose a reply; forward an attachment, and more. http://www.ilane.com/ IntelliOne has developed and acquired key technology components capable of concurrently locating every mobile phone in a GSM, CDMA or 3G network, fetermining roadway speed for all highways and surface streets having mobile phone coverage, and delivering personalized traffic navigation services to commercial and individual consumers. http://intellione.com InvenSense develops high-performance motion sensing solutions that meet the demanding size and cost requirements of the mobile consumer electronics market, including image stabilization and motion sensing applications in mobile phones. http://www.invensense.com/ Immersion is revolutionizing the way you interact with digital devices. Typically, you use two senses when interacting with technology – sight and hearing. Immersion's TouchSense® technology engages a third sense – touch – to give you a more complete, intuitive experience. Instantly, mobile phones become more useful, games more electrifying, automobile controls more intuitive, and medical training simulators more effective. http://www.immersion.com/ Linksys, a division of Cisco Systems, Inc., is the recognized global leader in VoIP, Wireless and Ethernet networking for home, SOHO (Small Office, Home Office) and small business users. Based in Irvine, California, Linksys specializes in products and solutions that provide effortless and economical sharing of broadband Internet connections, files, printers, digital music, videos, photos and gaming over a wired or wireless network. http://www.linksys.com/ Logicube CellDek manufactures the portable CellDEK® which acquires data from over 200 of the most popular cell phones and PDA's. Built to perform in the field (not just in the lab), investigators can immediately gain acces to vital information, saving days of waiting for a report from a crime lab. http://www.logicubeforensics.com/ loopt is a Palo Alto-based startup that has built a revolutionary "social mapping" service to change the way people use mobile phones to keep in touch with their friends. loopt uses GPS (and other location technology) to show you where your friends are by automatically updating maps on your mobile handset. loopt also lets you send messages to nearby friends or receive automatic alerts when they're nearby so that you never miss an opportunity to meet. With loopt, mobile subscribers put themselves on the map. https://www.loopt.com/ Mixd, owned by Yahoo, offers mobile-phone subscribers the ability to send text messages and share videos and pictures among friends. The service follows a trend among Internet portals to offer mobile social-networking services. http://mixd.yahoo.com/ MobiGater is a Skype to GSM Gateway. Using a second SIM card, the device connects your PC, that runs Skype, and your mobile phone. It acts as a gateway between these two devices allowing its users to make free Skype and very cheap SkypeOut long-distance calls from their mobile phones wherever they are. The device connects to the USB port of the computer allowing users to forward calls to their mobile phones. Similarly, a user can make calls from his mobile phone just by dialing his MobiGater device and adding a predefined speed dial of his Skype contact. http://www.mobigater.com/ MobiTV, Inc. is leading the convergence of television, film and music across the mobile and broadband markets. The Emmy® Award winning mobile television service offers popular TV and digital music content from top networks, labels and cable providers. The MobiTV® service has more than two million subscribers worldwide and is available throughout the US, UK, Latin America, and Canada. Founded in 1999, MobiTV is a privately held company headquartered in Emeryville, CA. http://www.mobitv.com/ MovaMail provides fast and effective solution for accessing all your existing email services without investing in an expensive dedicated device. http://www.movamail.com/ MTI Micro Fuel Cells Inc., a subsidiary of Mechanical Technology Inc. develops and manufactures advanced cord-free rechargeable power pack technology for portable electronics. MTI Micro has developed a patented, miniaturized proprietary direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) technology called Mobion®, which generates electrical power using 100% methanol as fuel. MTI Micro's Mobion® cord-free power packs are intended to replace current lithium ion and similar rechargeable battery systems in many hand-held electronic devices in the military and consumer markets. http://www.mtimicrofuelcells.com/ Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera's cross- platform Web browser technology is renowned for its small size, performance and standards-compliance, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/ Orb MyCasting gives consumers secure, instant and everywhere-access to everything from their photos and video to TV and music on any Web-enabled device with a streaming media player. http://www.orb.com/ Remote XT, a UK company, will be launching a cell phone service that makes your cell phone scream when stolen and the scream will never stop unless the battery is removed. When the battery is placed back into the stolen cell phone, it will continue to scream. http://www.remotext.com/ Reporo offers mobile phone services that include free texting, free picture messagers, free instant messenger (MSN, Yahoo, AOL, Google Talk and more), free news and sports from BBC and mobile phone shopping. http://www.reporo.com/ SEVEN's provides mobile email software which is sold as a service by mobile operators and service providers worldwide and provides real-time access to work and personal information, including email, calendar, corporate directories, personal contacts and documents. SEVEN's software is specialized to meet the unique needs and requirements of the Fortune 500 enterprise, the small-to-medium organization, workgroups, individual professionals and consumers. It is affordable, easy-to-use and highly secure for everyone. http://www.seven.com/ SkyboxSMS, headquartered in Illinois is planning to launch a new service that allows sports fans to order and pay for food at concession stands by sending text messages from cell phones. Additionally, the company will offer ordering and paying for parking and tickets at various stadiums across the country via cell phones. http://www.skyboxsms.com/ Skype is a little program for making free calls over the internet to anyone else who also has Skype. All calls from Skype to landlines and mobiles within the US and Canada are also free till the end of the year. It’s free and easy to download and use, and works with most computers. http://www.skype.com Sling transforms Windows-based laptops, desktops, PDAs, and smartphones into personal on-the-go digital TVs, the Slingbox™ allows individuals anywhere-anytime access to their own living room television experience with no additional monthly service fees. Enabling consumers to watch their cable, satellite, or digital video recorder (DVR) programming from wherever they are, the Slingbox turns any Internet-connected laptop, desktop, PDA, or smartphone into a personal TV. http://us.slingmedia.com/page/home StudioMOTO, owned by Motorola, offers free online music studio that lets users create their own multimedia for their mobile. StudioMOTO lets mobile users communicate beyond the static text message, with multimedia messages that resemble mobile postcards containing a combination of text, music, video and animation.This innovative new web site provides consumers with pre-selected music, rhythms, video animation and text to design a whole library of personalized multimedia messages that can be sent to a GSM phone or email address. http://www.hellomoto.com/studio Telenav, owned by Cingular Wireless, based in Santa Clara, CA and founded by a team of GPS experts in 1999, TeleNav is the global leader in location-based services (LBS). TeleNav was the first to launch a GPS solution on the mobile phone in North America, and since then have set the standard for the marketplace. http://www.telenav.com/ Mobilemiser is a website that promises to cut your cell phone bill in half. Using Mobilemiser, you can call anywhere [in North America] from 4.9 cents a minute, Mexico City is 6.9 cents a minute and London is 6.9 cents a minute. MobileVoiceControl, Inc. is located in Mason, Ohio . The company was founded to improve user productivity and efficiency when using mobile technology. The core competency is to build speech driven applications for mobile devices that allow users to be more efficient in their daily work and personal lives. MVC designs both consumer based products as well as vertical market business applications. http://mobilevoicecontrol.com/ T-Mobile HotSpot@Home uses WiFi and Voice Over IP (VoIP) to provide cheaper calls when in the area of a compatible WiFi hotspot. Besides cost savings, this technology should appeal to people that have poor cell coverage at home. http://www.theonlyphoneyouneed.com/ Third Screen Media created the TSM|Network, the world’s largest, single-source mobile ad network and MADX, the only web-based, mobile ad management and delivery platform that connects agencies, publishers and carriers. http://thirdscreenmedia.com/ Traffic.com is one of the largest independent providers of traffic information and services in the U.S. We deliver traffic content to clients and consumers on terrestrial and satellite radio, on broadcast and cable TV, through wireless applications and services, and via the Internet. The Traffic.com site and the companion MyTraffic site at my.traffic.com are our primary "direct to the consumer" online services. http://www.traffic.com/ UIQ Technology (recently acquired by Sony Ericsson) creates and licenses the open software platform, UIQ, to leading mobile phone manufacturers. Our flexible and customizable user interface and development platform is pre-integrated and tested with Symbian OS, the leading industry standard operating system for smartphones. http://www.uiq.com/ Wibree radio technology complements other local connectivity technologies, consuming only a fraction of the power compared to other such radio technologies, enabling smaller and less costly implementations and being easy to integrate with Bluetooth solutions. http://www.wibree.com/ xVista, a British company, develops portable iris scanning and identification system offering radical new benefits in security and the fight against identify fraud. Accurate, reliable and capable of running from any low power computing device including a standard camera mobile phone, this platform technology offers a wide range of potential security applications to companies and developers across sectors including mobile telecoms, consumer electronics, banking and aviation. http://www.xvista.co.uk/