The Carnival of the Mobilists seems to be back in full swing these days, with a round up of general mobile analysis each week (or so). Carnival 273 includes (ahem) no less than two of our pieces from AAS from the last few weeks, happily, but there's also a list of the world’s top mobile advertising networks, a fascinating story about gestural input interfaces, a look at how NFC is going to be hitting the High Street, a look at how bricks and mortar stores are handling the rise of mobile, and news of a new mobile travel planning service.

From the Carnival post:

Welcome to this week’s edition of Carnival of the Mobilists (COM) hosted by Tego Interactive. There is an eclectic mix of interests covered in this roundup of the Web’s best blogging on the technology and business of mobile and wireless. The COM is great collective of mobile thinkers and innovators and we would once again like to thank all Mobilists for their contributions to this COM installment.

Check out this week’s line-up of fine posts below. You will no doubt find something interesting and engaging. Also be sure to follow the COM on Twitter (@TheMobilists) to find out what’s happening within the COMmunity.

The AAS Stories included in the Carnival this week were my pieces:

“Five Things Nokia did Right and Five Mistakes it Made in the Symbian and Smartphone World”

and

“Spoilt for choice… since 2007″

Thanks to Tego Interactive for including them in the final edit of the carnival!

The 'pick of the week' turned into two picks:

It’s always a difficult task selecting a Pick of the Week, so we chose two! Both contributions cover an important topic for traditional brick-and-mortar retailers and their perceived threat of customer “showrooming” for online retailers. The advice here is valuable so read on.

• “Can Mobile Help Retailers Compete?”
  by Lisa Ciangiulli, Optism

  Online-only retailers may have a price and selection advantage over their brick-and-mortar competitors, but Lisa Ciangiulli of the Optism team shows how those those same physical stores are fighting back using a mix of old-school customer service and mobile technology to deliver a more sophisticated and enhanced shopping experience for customers. Get the details at the Optism Blog.

• “Retailers: Use Mobile Better To Fight ‘Showrooming’ Smarter!”
  by Joy Liuzzo, President of Wave Collapse writing for MobileGroove.com

  Joy demonstrates how one brick-and-mortar retailer is “combatting” what they think is an attack on their business by an online retailer via mobile devices, when they should be focusing on an “adoptive” approach by developing strategies which support the wide array of mobile savvy shoppers. As Joy puts it, shoppers will be shoppers and retailers need to embrace this behavior.