It’s the time of the year where giving is celebrated. Where do you go when you want to shop for Christmas presents? Bandar Utama? Sunway Pyramid? What would you buy? Shower Gels from Body Shop? Chocolate cookies from Marks & Spencer?

While it is already difficult to decide on what to buy for your real friends with the limited budget everyone has, a New York-based mobile gaming company called Cellufun has created a virtual environment to do just that. Themed The World’s Mobile Playground, it annouced it’s Merry Mobile: a community game where consumers celebrate the holidays in a virtual world. Users can buy gifts for their friends and shop for items to decorate their rooms that come in the form of homepages. There is a Virtual Mall where users can shop for virtual gifts such as fruitcake from Herr Strudel’s Bakery and SpaceWars ship models from Miss Dolly’s Toy Shoppe, making purchases with Cellupoints. Users can update their profiles and choose an avatar that represents themselves while delighting in the joy of giving and receiving during this festive cheers.

This concept will sell better during Valentines season where boyfriends and husbands can buy virtual gifts to send to their loved ones and vice versa. This eliminates the need of going to the shop and jostling with crowds to get one gift which she might not necessarily like. With virtual mall, you can choose a nice virtual card in which you can attach the nice photo of you and your partner which you took using your camera phone and send it as MMS or wallpaper. Simple, meaningful and saves the environment.

So, what are you waiting for. Go grab yourself a virtual Christmas fruitcake or pudding now. Too bad you can’t taste it.

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A down-to-earth commentary on mobile technology, internet and telecommunications from an employee working in a network operator in Asia. Feedback and proposals most welcomed.

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