BusinessWeek has a round-up of some of the mobile highlights that grabbed eyeballs and imagination at the last DEMO. Granted, the cool new apps and services deserve a second look – but what is really exciting is the understanding in the industry that today’s consumers don’t simply want to “consume” services; they want to co-create them. Israel’s Vringo “gets it.” Its technology lets users create their own short video clips and use them as viral ringtones – a reverse of the audio ringtone model where the receiver chooses what the caller hears. (Here’s how it works: You call your friend/peer. If you both have video-enabled phones, then whoever you are calling can see a video that you chose to send.) So far, the service (free of charge) works on Symbian. The company is looking to do deals with wireless carriers and, down the road, with brands that might like to deliver video content while putting their customers on hold, for example.

Another service that puts creativity in the hands of the users is BUZZ Interactive. It basically allows users to mix music clips and voice greetings to make personalized ringtones. The service can also be used to create custom voice-mail greetings. In reality, however, the service is only available via mobile operators in the U.S. and doesn’t allow users to add music from their own collection of MP3 music files. Jyngle borrows a page from what users can already do on PCs when they create and send emails to a group. It lets users send voice mail and text messages to many people at once. Another service, IQzone, is all about letting users create their own classified ads using their mobile phones. The company plans to target college students first (allowing users to sell stuff like used books on-the-fly and - more importantly - link up with nearby buyers to make the deal). DEMO sends a clear message to mobile operators and content companies that they need to figure a more active and assertive user into their services equations. The rise of Web 2.0 technologies and techniques, such as widgets and Ajax, combined with the expectation among users that they can have customized content on their terms, is game-changing – and companies that ignore this change will likely be crushed by it.