With nearly 2,000 “friends” on Facebook, I should be a regular visitor to the site. I am not. Instead, I prefer to use Facebook’s mobile application on my iPhone to send messages, update my status, upload photos taken on the go and sometime even scroll through the news feed to see what my friends are up to. The ad- and clutter-free interface has fewer distractions and makes using Facebook a breeze.

Apparently, I am one of 25 million Facebook mobile users and one of four million who access the service on a daily basis. That’s a sizable portion of Facebook’s 150 million (and growing) registered users, and with them lies Facebook’s future. With the rise of superphones such as Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone, the BlackBerry Bold and Nokia’s (NOK) E71 and N96 devices, we are at the cusp of a new era in which the mobile and the wired Web converge. This convergence, when married to location-based services, would create a new real-time and highly contextual Internet experience.

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U.K. paper The Guardian this morning reports that Orange, the mobile phone operator owned by France Telecom, is considering yanking Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry Bold from its handset lineup–presumably in the U.K. market–because of what the paper calls persistent software errors.

The curious fact of the article is that it cites no one–it is “understood,” in the passive voice, that the device will be discontinued by Orange. And the article is actually more about the BlackBerry Storm than the Bold.

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What’s the killer app on a BlackBerry? … Citigroup analyst Jim Suva has a note out today detailing his experience testing the forthcoming Research in Motion (RIMM) BlackBerry–the “Bold.” He says one of his tests involved watching the comedy movie “Talladega Nights” about race car driver Ricky Bobby, which showed off the pretty screen on the device. (It is nice, I’ve seen it.)

Suva has recently made known his belief that the Bold will be an important factor for RIM in the second half of 2008.

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Research In Motion (RIMM) shares are lower this morning heading into the company’s announcement after the close of results for its fiscal first quarter ended May. The Street consensus is for revenue of $2.27 billion and profits of 85 cents a share.

Meanwhile, RBC Capital’s Mike Abramsky asserts in a research note this morning that AT&T (T) appears likely to launch the new 3G Blackberry Bold in mid-August, two or three weeks later than expected, “as it continues to stabilize the device” on its 3G HSPA network. He reports that the launch with Rogers in Canada is on track for July, with other carriers expected to offer the phone later in August.

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