LiveCastr Launches; Next In Wave to Live Stream Video From Phone

Amsterdam based LiveCastr, a service that lets users live stream video from their mobile phone, launched today at the World Economic Forum in Davos. It joins a parade of competitors that have launched over the last couple of years, including Mogulus (not mobile), Qik, and Flixwagon among others.

Davos was a good venue for launch – founder Ralph Cohen has already captured live videos with Larry Page and Bill Gates while roaming the halls.

The main difference between LiveCastr and Qik is that Qik requires a software download to the phone – meaning that only a handful of handsets can currently be used with the service.

LiveCastr has both a software solution as well as allowing users to make a simple video call with their phone. The video call is lower quality, but it works with virtually all European 3G mobile phones and many U.S. ones as well, without the need to install any additional software. Streamed video can be viewed on the LiveCastr site or via an embeddable widget.

While LiveCastr just launched, the company has been providing mobile services for some time via their IceMobile site. LiveCastr is currently in private beta – request an invitation on their home page.