When it comes to realizing the potential of mobile platforms and applications, there aren’t many stories as well-played as Bambuser’s.  The Stockholm-based startup has been waiting for the right time to explode onto the mobile scene, and that time is now upon us.  With a highly successful application on the iPhone and Android, this Qik and FaceTime competitor is on a global tear.  The mobile video broadcaster is gearing up for a U.S. tour, promoting a redesigned application to a ready audience.

The team behind Bambuser’s redesign is the same that helped Spotify get its look–a bit of Euro-pop for the cross-continental debut, perhaps.  But in the meantime, I caught up with Bambuser president Hans Erikkson to hear about the journey as an early concept mobile app, founded in 2007 and funded in 2008.  Erikkson’s been with the team since its inception, officially joining as an executive last year. He has high hopes for Bambuser now that the mobile scene is able to power his company from both a technological and business standpoint.

“We had a good product and it worked fairly well, but many factors haven’t really played into what we’re actually doing in terms of social behavior,” Erikkson starts.  “But more importantly the technological infrastructure, in terms of 3G networks, people understanding and utilizing data networks over the last 6-9 months means that most people now understand what it costs to run data on handsets.  Today we’re starting to see rapid growth, and we’re happy to see how [Bambuser] is being utilized.”

In fact, Bambuser’s being used in ways the founders intended and hoped for, to “share moments of our lives” as we once did on MySpace, and still do with Facebook and Twitter.  It’s the promotion of the real-time web that’s coupled with interactive video towards Bambuser’s rising success.  “When a broadcast starts, it takes only seconds to be distributed across the social web.”

One very real scenario for Bambuser was its employment as a broadcasting tool during the Egypt protests, outlasting other means of communication, both web- and mobile-based.  It’s partially because of Bambuser’s ability to record content even when you’re offline, making users less reliant on local networks.  It’s starring role during the protests also landed Bambuser a mention in The New York Times, only increasing its visibility to users worldwide.

But offline recording isn’t the only feature that’s enabled Bambuser to survive the early mobile platform scene, as well as the financial crisis that seemed to peak in 2009.  It’s exclusive, real-time video solution is developing itself into a good marketing channel for end users, which have spanned consumer and business sectors as Bambuser’s reach is extended.

“It was a learning period at the time,” Erikkson recalls.  “There was a lot of discussion around what focus the company should have.  It wobbled between a consumer and business product, and the conclusion we came to last year is that it should be a combo of both.  We have a consumer play, but also a business solution, as companies use Bambuser for exclusive, real-time video.  This adds to the ability and knowledge around our brand, and enabled us to spend a good year-and-a-half understanding where the focus should be.”

While there’s no exact date set for Bambuser’s re-launch, it’s expected in the next few weeks.  As a mobile service, there’s always the consideration of the iOS and Android platforms, which can be very different environments from a developer standpoint.  So far Android has been a wild success for Bambuser, and, as with Qik, this could be due to the app’s ability to supplement a feature not included in Android’s base toolkit.  Bambuser continues to focus on its user experience as the re-launch nears, incorporating new features, as well as new implementations (and increased visibility) of existing features, some of which users weren’t even aware of.