By Ryan Olson

Discovering new ways to combine the power of the Internet with mobile devices was the mission of Web-2-Mobile, a business plan competition that concluded in Silicon Valley this week after a panel of judges picked the most promising entrepreneurs from a pool of 95 applicants narrowed down to 10 finalists.

Organized by Finnish government outreach organization Finnode in partnership with Red Herring, Nokia, Yahoo, and others, Web-2-Mobile winners will visit Nokia labs and have an opportunity to develop and test their innovations. Victors and finalists are as follows:

Winner - TalkPlus

Given special distinction as an honorary winner because of the advanced nature of its business, San Mateo, California-based TalkPlus offers mobile phone software that makes it possible for a mobile phone to have as many as 10 different numbers. Pick a home number, work number, or even an international number, and all incoming calls to those numbers route to your mobile. TalkPlus also lets users take calls from Skype or even SIP addresses—essentially email addresses leading to voice calls. “It’s one device with multiple identities,” said TalkPlus CEO Jeff Black.

Mobile users download the TalkPlus application, pay a monthly fee between $9.99 and $19.99, and talk for $0.03 per minute. The company launched its downloadable application on January 8. Initially available in the U.S., TalkPlus currently supports Brew, Java, or WAP and is certified to work on more than 75 handsets. Support for additional models is in the works, Mr. Black said, including Blackberries on February 15. TalkPlus said it will be available in Europe and Latin America by the third quarter of 2007 and Asia and Africa by the end of the year. TalkPlus also supports the e911 wireless emergency service.

Winner - Mobile Backstage

A mere three months old, Finland’s Mobile Backstage thinks it has a new way to tap music fans using mobile phones. Customers download the company’s free Java-based application and buy credits that are then used to obtain downloadable ring tones, songs, and videos featuring their favorite artists. A key element of the service is the company’s My Own Backstage application, which lets users store multimedia they’ve created and share it with others.

Created by members of a Finnish record company with experience in fan marketing, Mobile Backstage hopes to partner with record companies, advertisers, and phone companies and service operators. The company is already working with musicians in Finland and hopes to expand its operation to international markets within three years. Mobile Backstage officials also believe the software has potential in other entertainment markets.

Winner - N2N Consulting

Singapore-based N2N Consulting developed M-Bit Network, a peer-to-peer file sharing service designed for mobile phones. With consumers carrying around increasingly powerful mobile hardware capable of capturing high-resolution digital photos and playing big music files, N2N wants to make it easier for them to download and share content. The software currently supports Symbian, Java, and Windows Mobile operating systems.

The company aims to generate revenue though direct software sales, as a provider of managed services, and through revenue sharing programs with mobile service providers. Already active in Asian countries including China, Japan, and Taiwan, N2N hopes to bring M-Bit to additional markets after the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona next month.

Winner - SMS Card

The real estate business is a market in serious need of customized mobile phone applications, says SMS Card. Since Realtors spend most of their work time outside their offices tethered to a mobile phone and the majority of U.S. consumers deal with the first real estate agent they speak to, making the most of each call is vital. So SMS Card developed inproperty. Available on phones and PCs, the software assigns a unique phone number to each property in an agent’s database. When a prospective buyer calls said number, inproperty immmediately gives agents information about the caller and the property via a PC web browser or directly on the Realtor’s mobile phone. The software also tracks and helps manage caller information. Callers using a mobile phone will also have relevant details sent their way.

Currently only available in the U.K., SMS Card plans an aggressive assault on the U.S. starting in March. The company plans to generate revenue from subscription fees, call charges, and revenue sharing. In the next three years, SMS Card hopes to sign up nearly 100,000 users.

Finalist - AiroMediaTech

BluBlaster is a piece of software that Miami-based AiroMediaTech designed to allow VoIP calling using a mobile phone. Using Bluetooth, BluBlaster will make it possible to use a cell phone as a remote control for PC-based VoIP applications like Skype or Yahoo Voice, eliminating the need for headsets or USB phones. Airo plans to sell the software to OEMs and resellers.

The company plans to have a Windows Mobile version of BluBlaster supporting Skype in the next few months. Support for Yahoo MSN, and Symbian versions of the aforementioned services will be available by June. BluBlaster also plans to develop a product supporting video, to eliminate the need for PC-based cameras.

Finalist - Childs Capital

Expanding access to financial services to the poorest people in the world is the mission of Childs Capital. The company hopes to do this by developing a simple but efficient security mechanism that can be used to more easily provide microfinancing to individuals in the developing world. Because of widespread illiteracy, one of Childs approaches is to develop picture-based authentication mechanisms to make user verification easier.

Childs claims that more than one-third of poor people in the developing world without access to financial services have some sort of access to a mobile phone, making the devices a potentially effective way of expanding access to microfinance.

Finalist – Extreme AI

Albuquerque-based Extreme AI is working on The Q Game, an interactive metropolitan adventure game played using mobile phones. CEO Bill Klein described the title as The Da Vinci Code meets The Amazing Race, because it blurs the line between the virtual and real world. The Q Game is free to download and makes money through the display of local advertisements, which are featured as users, solve puzzles, figure out clues, and compete to earn prizes.

The game also includes a mobile city guide feature maps, directions, and information on local events, which Extreme AI said will involve local governments. The company plans to deploy the first version of The Q Game in Albuquerque later this year and hopes to expand to additional markets before the end of the decade.

Finalist - IBM Almaden Research

Cell phones and other mobile devices packed with pictures, music, and videos are giving rise to new ways for users to share content. To make it easier, data management researchers from IBM created a type of middleware called Ïnfinïty to help create data sharing applications. The technology translates different data formats, chooses communication channels, and preserves privacy.

While researchers acknowledge they’re not sure of the most compelling initial application for Ïnfinïty, it hasn’t stopped them from creating several applications using the technology. They include an evacuation routing procedure, a recommendation service, and an automobile navigation service.

Finalist – GDM Group

“Get called—Get paid.” That’s the idea behind Gigafone, from Russian startup GDM Group. Right before an incoming call, the company’s mobile software delivers advertisements via text message, picture, or even video. Users are paid each time they receive an incoming advertisement. The Gigaphone application also offers customers music, ring tones, and other material for purchase, as well as an electronic wallet that can be used to collect earnings from viewed advertisements.

Already in use in Russia, Gigaphone supports Symbian and Windows Mobile phones. The company is seeing success with ad campaigns from brands like Heineken and Unilever. GDM plans a larger launch at the 3GSM Conference in Barcelona next month and is targeting some 26 countries.

Finalist - Intellareturn

The postal service needs a way to take advantage of the Web 2.0 phenomenon, says Intellareturn. The company’s Append system is a microchip-based product attached to letters, postcards, and packages that links to text, audio, and video files. Using a phone or other mobile device equipped with near-field-communication equipment, users can then view the multimedia via the Internet.

Intellareturn is targeting envelope manufacturers interested in including Append in their products, in addition to selling the stamps alone in stationary and convenience stores. They’re also interested in providing fee-based online storage of media and other content for mobile devices.