UK company
Trutap have just launched a public beta for their Java-based software for IM from mobile handsets. Trutap, who were one of the companies to appear recently at TechCrunch 40, have been running a private beta for some weeks while they tuned their software on a range of different mobiles. I myself have been running the client on a Sony Ericsson phone, and considered it a good looking client, if not the most functionally rich. The IM functionality connects to MSN, AIM and Yahoo, but sadly for me not Skype or GoogleTalk where a lot of my contacts live. It works well enough for MSN, subject of course to the challenges of messaging in realtime with only a phone keypad. As well as IM, the Trutap client also allows you to blog while on the move.
There seem to be a number of companies getting into this mobile IM and VoIP space just at the moment, probably the best known being Gizmo. You can load the Trutap client now and join the beta by navigating to
m.trutap.com from your mobile browser and downloading the Java applet. Despite the similar naming, Trutap is not affiliated with UK-based mobile VoIP company
Truphone.