The Mobile Hotness | Latin America | Courtesy of Matt Garlick

The 2nd installment in Cabana Mobile's series The Mobile Hotness covers some of the latest buzz and trends in Latin America, and is provided courtesy of Matt Garlick, Director of Latin America for global mobile marketing and content technology company 2ergo. Matt is based in Buenos Aires.

• MEF Launches: The Mobile Entertainment Forum launches in Latin America with lead sponsors Playphone, Dada and 2ergo. Its first initiatives will be in Brazil, where the trade association will attempt to address challenges faced by content providers in terms of regulation, taxes, shortcode provisioning, etc.

• Plaza Widgets: América Móvil (194mil subs) launches Qualcomm's Plaza widgets platform to streamline the creation of highly customized, lightweight, connected mobile applications, and (one hopes) simplify monetization…an interesting play aimed at providing subscribers with rich (quasi mobile internet) experiences in predominantly feature phone markets.

• Android Devices: Motorola launched the Milestone with Personal in Argentina, Samsung and HTC launched Android handsets with TIM in Brazil, and HTC launched with Entel PCS in Chile…what will the iPhone vs. Android landscape look like a year from now in Latin America?

• Mobile Advertising: At the end of 2009 Amobee began rolling out mobile advertising services across Telefónica’s Latin American operators while América Móvil partnered with MyScreen to deliver full-screen ads

• Market Saturation: With 100% mobile penetration for Chile and Argentina in place, and Brazil predicted for 2010…carriers will be keen to better understand who their (pre-paid) users are and which pricing models and services help them retain or attract them as they begin to compete for the same customers.

• Mad QR COWdes: Leading Brazilian interactive marketing agency pontomobi is hoping to enhance consumer awareness about 2-D QR codes by tagging cows in this year's Sao Paulo CowParade (see video below)... which is one of the biggest street art events in the world.

Telefónica Gets Emociónal With Player X

According a press release today, leading Spanish operator Telefónica Móviles (TEF) has become the 2nd European operator (after O2 UK) to deploy Player X Distribution's "100% Mobile" games store within a store product. The portal gives Telefónica's subscribers an additional mobile games retail venue in the existing "emoción" content channel. 100% Mobile features innovative community features, enhanced promotional opportunities, subscription options and "try before you buy" functionality. Player X CEO Tony Pearce said, "we are confident the new site will significantly drive consumption and ARPU as we have successfully done so with O2 UK.” If this proves out and Telefónica decides to expand the offering across its vast network of operators in Europe and LatAm, this could be a substantial opportunity for London-based Player X.

2008 Brings Buono Fortuna to Buongiorno

In a pre-close earnings announcement today Milan-based publisher and ondeck/offdeck services provider Buongiorno (BNG) offered a taste of its 2008 financials...

Revs = 315mil euros ($402mil) +80% from 2007

EBITDA = 40mil euros ($51mil)

Growth was driven by their acquisition of iTouch, increase in recurring subs to BlinkoGold services and mobile lottery hosting for Telefonica's Movistar services in Africa & LatAm.

Assuming these numbers hold Buongiorno maintains its #2 position in the mobile content space by revenue behind Spain's ZED.