REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Dec. 19 -- Funambol, the leading provider of open source push email and mobile sync worldwide, today announced a new free research report entitled, "Market Potential for Ad-funded Mobile Email." The report summarizes the findings of a survey that was conducted with users of the ad-funded myFUNAMBOL mobile email service. The survey was performed to gauge user acceptance of mobile ads and to learn about a broad range of issues relating to an ad-funded mobile email solution. The report found that there is good potential for an ad-funded service. Users indicated that they are willing to accept ads as long as the ads are non-intrusive and relevant, user privacy is maintained, and ads subsidize the service cost. The report also discusses the financial prospects for an ad-funded solution. It found that users generated $10 each per month and were willing to pay about $6 per month for the service.

"There has been a lot of interest in providing an ad-funded mobile email service but nobody knew whether users would accept it or if the economics would work," said Fabrizio Capobianco, Funambol CEO. "This report shows that users will adopt ad-funded mobile email, provided ads are relevant and are well integrated into the user experience. It also validates that the financial model can work for all involved."

The free report is available immediately and can be downloaded, with free registration, at http://www.funambol.com/solutions/library.php.

About Funambol

Funambol is the leading provider of open source push email and mobile sync worldwide. Funambol is pioneering an open source ad-funded push email and mobile sync solution. These solutions are based on Funambol open source software, which is the leading cross-platform mobile open source project in the world, whose software has been downloaded three million times by 50,000 developers and project participants in 200 countries. The commercial version of Funambol has been deployed at service providers, mobile operators, portals, device manufacturers and ISVs including customers such as AOL, 1&1, Earthlink and CA, Inc. Funambol is headquartered in Redwood City, California with an R&D center in Italy. For more information, please visit http://www.funambol.com