Nokia sales manager Matt Davies last month demonstrated the new Nokia Point & Find service at Mediapost’s Digital Out-of-Home Forum. Nokia isn’t the only company introducing this kind of mobile image recognition technology.

Building on the European success of his mobile marketing agency Mobile Dreams Factory Alberto Benbunan made the leap to New York.

‘All the location based social networks should trial their technology first in New York and then go anywhere else,’ says Benbunan.

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In a panel discussion on the economic downturn PricewaterhouseCoopers principal Michael Kelley identified 2D barcodes as one growth market for the coming 18 months. Kroger and Wal-Mart are already putting the infrastructure in place.

Google last week unveiled the winners of their Android Developer Challenge. Most of the top 20 apps utilize the location capabilities of the Open Handset Alliance’s operating system, but with no phones on the market, Android faces an uphill battle against iPhone.

‘Google wanted twenty very solid, ready-to-launch applications for the new phones,’ says Rosie Pongracz, co-founder of PocketJourney. ‘I think that’s why they held the competition to begin with. That’s our interpretation. Of course nothing has been formalized.’

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Clear Channel last month launched ‘the largest online radio advertising network ever’ with their sales subsidiary Katz Media. Nearest competitor CBS Radio has been working on a similar online push through New York-based startup TargetSpot.