Content providers from every conceivable genre are looking to get in on the mobile action, either with new made-for-mobile applications or scaled-down versions of their online offerings.

Whether they're of the "content is king" or "the customer is king" school of thought, Mobio is determined to help. The Cupertino, California start-up provides infrastructure and content development services to content providers wanting to build mobile applications and portals.

Mobile Content Today recently had the opportunity to speak with Mobio CEO Ramneek Bhasin about the company's approach to application development, the importance of a solid user experience and how to keep them coming back.

To read more about our conversation with Bhasin, click continued.

According to Bhasin, providing a pleasant user experience is one of, if not the, most important aspect of a mobile application. After all, consumers who turn to their phone for info often only have a couple of minutes to spare and don't have the time to browse or scroll through a seemingly endless number of menu screens. To meet the need for expediency, Mobio employs the "three-click rule," meaning that three clicks will get the user to the end point of any transactive application.

Mobio's approach is based on a simple premise: search, find, transact. So, if you want to go to a movie, click once to find the flick you want to see, click again to find out when it's playing at the local cinema and click a third time to buy tickets.

The company applies a similar philosophy to building the applications. It uses what Bhasin described as a "cookie-cutter approach" to its apps. This, he said, allows it to "churn out new applications in days and weeks instead of weeks and months."

Mobio has its own portals, one for consumers in the US and one in India, and partners with content providers to populate the available applications that fall into three general categories - sports, entertainment and news.

The US portal, GetMobio.com, launched in April 2007 with more than 50 applications, widgets and RSS feeds. The whole thing is free and will eventually be supported by advertising. Technically, the portal is still in beta and, Bhasin said, will remain so for quite some time. It works on some 400-500 handset models and provides a "rich experience" on the top 100 of them.

Bhasin said that users "love it" and has some stats that appear to back up his claim. GetMobio currently sees 100%-150% growth in users and 200% growth in page views month-over-month. "The depth and continuity of content is what will keep users coming back and developing a relationship with us," he said.