GooJet (Good Gadget), a french start-up based in Toulouse, south of France and developping mobile widgets for Java MIDP2 environnement, has just closed € 2.3 million in first round funding led by Partech International, Elaia Partners and IRDI.

<<GooJet is a management and creation space for mobile widgets>> explained in september Marc Rougier, GooJet CEO, in an IntrudersTV interview with Thierry Bezier.

GooJet should be launched in a private beta version on tuesday, during LeWeb3 conference in Paris but french blogger Jacques Froissant already had more details from Cedric Giorgi, GooJet co-founder, about this project which apparently competes with Webwag or Widsets.

François Chaney, a french blogger already knows for a blog dedicated to latest Apple smartphone, has decided to launch a mobile guide called iStart.fr, giving access to best iphone compliant web sites.After a first wave this summer with Netvibes, DailyMotion or Exalead, many news web sites have revealed their iPhone version this week : L’Oreal Paris, Liberation, Dior, Cortado, Lycos, AlternativeChannel or Freetouch.Even if Orange provides an official portal dedicated to Apple smartphone, iStart.fr has already attracted more than 3000 mobile internet users, looking for “offportal” content.

Even if Orange is supposed to officially launch the iPhone on November 29, it’s today November 28, that the carrier should open its first shops, around 7 PM, selling Apple latest smartphone.

Sold €649 without any plan, €549 with a regular plan, iPhone is available for € 399 with an “iPhone Plan” :
- 2 hours / 50 SMS / unlimited data : 49 euros a month
- 3 hours / 100 SMS / unlimited data : 59 euros a month
- 5 hours / 150 SMS / unlimited data : 79 euros a month
- 8 hours / 1000 SMS / unlimited data : 119 euros a month

Pretty optimistic, Didier Lombard, Orange CEO, expects to sell more than 100 000 iPhones until the end of the year. A figure that could be reached thanks to an incredible press coverage even if some bloggers like Gonzague Dambricourt already start to sell their imported iPhone, explaining that Apple product was already old-fashioned ! snobbery.com…

More than two years after the launch of its bluetooth “Mobile Social Software”, french company Mobiluck comes back with a new application, 100% online, but still providing social features (chatting, dating, etc..) and location of its members. 

<<Our new application now works without any boundaries and on any kind of mobile phones. >> explains Olivier Chouraki, Moblick Founder and CEO, a company claiming to have more than 50 000 members to its mobile social network..

Even if most mobile phones do not embed a GPS chip, Mobiluck asks its members to say “where they are”, enabling geolocation matching between them but also geotargeting advertising. <<We also work on other kind of business models like premium SMS or partnerships with carriers>> adds Olivier Chouraki, who should also launch Mobiluck API to let its members say “where they are” on a blog or on their facebook profile.  

Three years after SFR and Orange 3G/UMTS networks, Bouygues Telecom, third French cellular operator with around 16 million subscribers, has finally opened this week-end its own 3G network, based on 3G/HSDPA technologies and offering 3,6 Mbits/sec bandwith to mobile internet users.

Targeting professionnal users, Bouygues Telecom introduces a computer centric data plan, charged 69 euros per month, using PCMCIA cards or 3G USB keys, and offering unlimited wireless access. According to mobinaute.com, Bouygues Telecom should also reveal within 15 days an other plan, targeting mass market, and also introducing unlimited data access on mobile phones.

Pretty generous, these plans probably arrive too late on a market, already leaded by Orange, wich is about to launch the Apple iPhone, or by SFR, which revealed earlier this month its “illimythics” data plans.

SFR doesn’t want to remain in the shadow of Orange, which is about to launch the iPhone on November 29th on the French Market. The second largest French wireless carrier has revealed this morning its “IlliMythics” data plans, introducing unlimited SMS, unlimited MMS, unlimited wap/web browsing and even unlimited music and TV streaming access. (See also our earlier coverage: SFR is ABout to Launch an Unlimited 3G+ Data Plan)

Available on its brand new 3G/HSPA network, called 3G+ in France, these plans are sold from 39 € per month (2 hours of voice calls + unlimited datas) up to 69 € per month, for 5 hours of voice calls, unlimited datas, music dowloads and television access. The carrier only forbids VoIP and P2P applications, as well as using the mobile phone as a modem.

Despite the lack of the Apple iPhone, SFR introduces a wide range of tactile handsets : LG Viewty, LG KS20, HTC Touch Dual, Samsung SGH-F700 and two excellent music phones : the Sony Ericsson Walkman, with its 4 GB memory, and the brand new Nokia N85, with its 8 GB memory.

Pretty generous, these “Illimythics” plans should seduce mobile internet users, looking for unlimited data plans and probably give ideas to Orange as well as Bouygues Telecom, which is about to launch its 3G network within the next weeks.

Orange won the iPhone battle but has not already won the internet mobile war. Second largest cellular carrier on the french market with more than 17 million subscribers, SFR is about to launch on November 6th the first plan with unlimited high speed access (3G/HSDPA).

SFR should also be the first carrier to launch the new Nokia N95 8 Gb on the french market, a 3G/HSDPA smartphone based on Symbian and S60 software with a GPS chip, now available with a 8 gigabytes internal memory.

SFR, which is a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal and Vodafone, already launched in July a data plan, giving an unlimited access to some limited web sites like Windows Live Messenger, MySpace, eBay, YouTube and DailyMotion.

With this new unlimited data plan, SFR could enforce its competitors to launch their own data plans this fall. Orange should reveal an 2G/EDGE unlimited data plan for the iPhone, awaited on November 29 and some analysts also expect Bouygues Telecom to reveal a mobile broadband offer, on its brand new 3G/HSDPA network, before the end of the year.

Apple and Orange have officially announced that the French iPhone should be available on November 29 but a major French start-up did not wait for the launch to reveal their mobile site optimised for the Apple smartphone.

Exalead, one of the most dynamic search engines, has introduced last week i.exalead.com, a site for the iPhone and iPod touch. Mobile internet users can search for web sites, images, videos and even Wikipedia articles. If the answer is not relevant, they can use the “refine” button, displaying extra keywords to launch a new query.

Even if Exalead search within video files, French mobile internet users can also go on iphone.dailymotion.com, main YouTube competitor, which gives access to more than 26 channels and to a selection of videos, which are optimised to be seen as landscape and not portrait mode…

After a WAP version in July (m.netvibes.com), Netvibes also launched in august an iPhone version (iphone.netvibes.com) giving access to RSS feeds and organised in “tabs”. Netvibes is the only of these three iPhone sites to be in the Apple Catalog of iPhone applications.

It’s official ! Five months after its launch in the US, Apple iPhone will be officially sold in France by Orange, starting November 29th.

Despite some tensions between Didier Lombard, Orange CEO, and Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, the two companies apparently settled an agreement.

“We are excited to partner with Orange and bring iPhone to France in time for the holidays,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPhone is an amazing product and we hope mobile users in France will love it as much as we do.”

According to Orange, the 8GB iPhone model will be retailed at € 399 (VAT included). Unfortunately, the carrier did not elaborate on voice or data plans. Also, Apple conveniently failed to mention the French law that could require the company to make unlocked iPhones available in six months …

Bonus link: Apple Hooking Up With Mobistar for the iPhone? (blognation Belgium)

New screens, new players! Bluestreak technology, a company which has developed “MachBlue”, a multimedia flash interface for mobile phones, announced today that it has secured USD $20 million dollars in Series D financing from Iris Capital, QFL, BDC Venture Capital, First Capital Group and Tomorrow Group.

“This latest round of financing will allow Bluestreak to further consolidate its position in the fast-growing rich media market and to continue winning major accounts worldwide including in the Chinese and Korean markets.’’ said Paul Forostowsky, Bluestreak CEO

Compatible with major mobile environments like Java, Brew, Symbian, and the Access Linux platform, Bluestreak has been chosen by Orange France for its mobile EPG (Electonic Programme Guide), a strange move from a company which made also a strategic investment in Streamezzo, Bluestreak’s main competitor.