Open-Source Email Provider Funambol Embeds Ads In Push Mail

Is nothing sacred? Open-source mobile messaging service provider Funambol is partnering with mobile ad network Amobee to put ads in its push e-mail client. Ads will appear in users’ mobile mail messages. Redwood City-based Funambol, which has R&D in Italy, makes solutions to sync email across desktop apps and mobile. This is billed as a way to “shift content subsidization from mobile users to advertisers” (ie. to make mobile email free). Amobee CEO Zohar Levkovitz (via release): “Research indicates that many more people would use mobile email if it were more affordable and it worked on their existing phones.”