Hear that distinctive call of the software maker wooing its kind? See the mobile carrier flirting with its rival in the corner? Our guests at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit keep talking about consolidation in their industries.

Some of them expect their markets to winnow out to a handful of players. Others say slim valuations may give their companies more reasons to seek joint manufacturing partnerships. Either way, it’s hard to ignore the romance. Here are some of the things we have heard this week:

I’m not so sure that companies go away as much as there is manufacturing capacity and R&D alliances. I think that’s what we’re going to see as opposed to the absorption of companies. … I think we’re going to see several of those. Applied Materials CEO Mike Splinter

I do believe you’re going to see continued consolidation in this industry. That should not be surprising to anybody. Over the long term, networks are commodities … what you need is more and more scale and more and more cost efficiencies. Virgin Mobile USA CEO Dan Schulman

I expect the rate of consolidation in our industry to increase. There will be very few big IT companies … I absolutely believe you will be down to less than 10 big companies. Symantec COO Enrique Salem

(Photo of penguins in courtship ritual from Reuters)

Will mobile advertising make you rich?

Virgin Mobile USA CEO Dan Schulman told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit today about a new advertising partnership with AOL’s Third Screen Media.

We asked him how big a deal it was. Schulman was enthusiastic, to say the least.

“We think it will drive a trillion dollars to us in the next four to six months.”

On the more serious side, Schulman explained that mobile advertising was still in its infancy as carriers have yet to really figure out the right way of offering people ads on their phones without becoming a nuisance.

“It’s small (in terms of revenue) and I wouldn’t even put it in the meaningful category yet. We’re experimenting with it. Mobile advertising is something you need to be quite careful with. A cell phone is a relatively intimate device.”

Virgin Mobile USA has had some success with its advertising forays. Schulman said more than 700,000 of its 5 million customers had signed up for its “Sugar Mama” promotion that let them earn free phone minutes in return for watching ads online.

Its subscribers can also put their friends to work for them with a “Sugar Mama” widget on social network Facebook. The more friends download the application and watch ads, the more free minutes their pal can accumulate.

(Photo: Reuters)