I recently met up with a former client. In a two room office in central Jerusalem, his team develops apps for smartphones etc. His order book is full to the extent that he does not have time to answer all his incoming mails.

How successful are Israeli apps in the commercial market place? Just by considering four press releases from the past few days, the answer must verge towards the very positive.

Take Android app developer Pops Ltd., who has raised just $1.5 million to personalize incoming message alerts, on the mobile phones, Facebook, e-mail, WhatsApp, etc. With under ten people on its payroll, this start up has managed to attract the attention of Mangrove Capital, one of Europe’s premier vc groupings.

“FootTraffic offers advertisers a performance marketing platform for location-based offers. In other words, this is not just another attempt to reach potential customers via their mobiles. Payment is only deducted if a sale is concluded. That is one large rung up on the sophistication ladder.

The slogan of CallmyName is ” a world without phone numbers”. A relative veteran in the industry – founded in 2007 – and one of the dozens of Israeli companies featuring at Barcelona 2012, CallmyName offers a complete package for dialling via names. Deals are now in place to take this offer into the UK, Germany, Singapore and elsewhere. All this is supported by a recent investment package valued at US$6.0 million from an overseas outfit.

Last but by now means least is Viber 1. Within 13 months of launch, it has supplied one billion minutes of free phone calls for smartphone owners in over one hundred countries. 54 million individual users and growing rapidly. Now that is an amazing achievement.