Start Mobile recently announced that it will be bringing art into the digital world with 16 mobile art galleries for the iPhone.

Starting July 19, consumers can browse through the galleries and choose access to any of the curated art wallpaper galleries for 99 cents. The galleries feature works from a broad range of artists such as some of the world's premiere emerging and underground artists.

"From the beginning, our vision was one of 'Art for Everyone & Art for Everywhere', and we currently supply 'artist wallpapers' to carriers and mobile content distributors globally," said John Doffing, CEO of Start Mobile, San Francisco, CA. "With the launch of our first 16 artist galleries for the iPhone this week, our job just got a lot easier.

"We are now able to offer curated collections of artist wallpapers directly to iPhone users globally via iTunes, delivered as an integrated application, which means more art for mobile consumers at half the typical retail price of a single static wallpaper of a clip-art sports car or bikini babe," he said.

Consumers can visit the start mobile Web site at http://www.startmobile.net/iphone.html and browse through a list of artists such as Justin Bua, Ricky Powell, Shepard Fairey, Sugarluxe, Drew Brophy, Mark Wasyl, Kelly Towles, Tricia Choi, Felix LaFlamme and Luke Feldman.

Start Mobile claims that the iPhone represents a new opportunity to discover, own and appreciate digital art and that the company is excited to take advantage of that for consumers and for new artists and designers looking for a platform to monetize their work.

The iPhone galleries from Start Mobile each deliver a bundled collection of curated wallpapers that are available as iPhone applications.

Start Mobile claims that it intends to transform the public's perception of clip art and wallpapers.

"We are currently working on dozens of additional iPhone Galleries for artists, brands and causes globally, as well as curated collections of mobile artwork that showcase everything from Brazilian street art to Iranian political art," said Christina Samala, creative director for Start Mobile.

"Start Mobile has endeavored to create a platform for publishing creative content for the iPhone, and we hope to launch titles that will appeal to a lot of different demographics globally," she said.

The images included in Start Mobile art galleries are exclusive to the iPhone application and are sent directly to the picture library of the user's iPhone for easy access and flexibility.

The mobile art wallpapers are fully optimized to work on the iPhone.

Should the consumer be interested in some more information on the image, each wallpaper can be "flipped" to reveal additional information about the select artists.

Start Mobile admits that it wants to make the digital art galleries comfortably similar to physical art galleries, which is the reason for the "flip for additional information" feature.

The art galleries for the iPhone also include a picture frame feature. This feature plays through the curated works of art in five-second intervals just like a slideshow.

The picture frame feature also overrides the auto-lock setting on the iPhone so that users can continue viewing an artsy slideshow even while the phone is idle, docked or charging.

"Once you get away from the idea that art should cost a lot of money and should only appear on the pristine white walls of a gallery or museum, a whole bunch of new possibilities open up," Mr. Doffing said.

"Technology can facilitate a lot of outside-the-box thinking relative to the marketing, ownership and appreciation of fine art, and this is a significant part of what Start Mobile is trying to accomplish," he said.

"Now don't get me wrong - mobile art as it exists today is no substitute for original artwork by any means, but it introduces a decidedly egalitarian ethos into an art world that has become inaccessible to the vast majority of potential art lovers."