Rogue Culture Aficionado

German startup, Cellity has unveiled Addressbook 2.0, for mobile phones, now available in a private beta. The application will allow those who still use a basic cell phone to aggregate data from across their emails, social networks, and standard address books into a single intuitive application, bringing the functionality of a smartphone to an estimated 650 more basic phones that support the Java platform, a significant marketshare not covered by the likes of the Iphone.

To get started, users import their friend lists from social networks including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, as well as from email clients like Outlook. The service will automatically detect when a friend is found on multiple social networks and aggregate their data under a single profile without creating duplicates. Also since address books generated using social networks can grow very large very quickly, the site offers an online control panel to manage contacts. Users can create a database consisting of thousands of entries to be stored in the cloud, picking out the few dozen that they use most regularly to be stored on the phone (they can access the full list from their phones if they ever need it). The online panel also allows includes the same features of the mobile app, allowing users to place cheap calls (currently just over their own network), send text messages, and update social network statuses.

From the screen shots, Addressbook 2.0's design is very polished,and hopefully they will live up to their potential, especially if they maintain their focus on traditional address book functionality as opposed to attempting to mobilize social networking, where plenty of competitors exist.

via Techcrunch