Another pile of interesting mobile-related stuff from the last month or two:

• Helen rightly rags on the complexity of mobile tariffs, though I have to wonder if operators actually benefit from their being difficult to equate to one another.
• Typical iPhone application budget referred to as being $30,000
• Interesting stats on iPhone leading the way with application installations
• You can now give out promo versions of your iPhone apps
• Truphone launched VOIP for the iPod Touch. In a nice, ahem, touch, this subtly and neatly fragments the iPhone platform a little (though at what is presumably a commercial level - i.e. an arrangement with Apple - rather than at a technical level)...
• ... and it looks like it helps to either be Apple, or one of its Friends With Privileges, if you're building cute iPhone apps (though it's by no means essential). Interesting to see how this ecosystem vs mothership plays out over time (and there might some interesting economic effects) but still, 300m downloads since July or 100m in 45 days is pretty good going, even if the top positions do disproportionately well (as you might expect)
• Nice call from Mr Greenfield: all public objects should have APIs, as a matter of policy.
• More patents from Apple around touch sensors: "desirable because it can enable the computing system to perform certain functions without necessitating actual contact with the touch panel, such as turning the entire touch panel or portions of the touch panel on or off"
• SMS is a bigger earner than box office receipts plus music revenues plus video-game revenues. Jeepers.
• I can't help but feel a little cheer rumble inside me as I read of Palm having another shot at relevance :)
• iPhone is growing fastest amongst lower income demographics - very interesting;
• David Wood has a nice writeup of a Google Mobile presentation, including their philosophy for mobile success;
• He also has a nice response to the John Strand article I posted: "The mobile industry is in a time of very considerable flux. The iPhone has played an important role of opening people's eyes to the possibilities of smarter mobile devices, but that doesn't mean that operators will continue to be keen to actively support the iPhone. Instead, what I hear is that they're looking for phone platforms that are both complete and highly customisable."
• Strange widget stuff going on at Orange: "another Java-based widget platform is about as useful as a hole in the head. Still, perhaps a good trepanning is just what Orange needs."