SLOUGH, United Kingdom-U.K. customers of carrier MmO2 can make animated invitations, greeting cards and other messages through a new service, the operator announced Tuesday.
Users with WAP 2-enabled phones can create their own animated content through “Fun Zone,” O2’s online storefront that offers entertainment-based applications, then send the messages to other multimedia message service-enabled phones or use the content as wallpaper or screensavers. Mixipix, a 2-year-old U-K.-based animation and interactive content developer, is providing content for the carrier.
“Adding a cartoon to a text message can be used to create everything from a simple ‘hello’ to party invitations and special greetings-like e-cards for phones,” said Lesley Keen, Mixipix’s founder and managing director. “With a little imagination, the sender can easily create mobile content unique to them, which their friends will treasure.”
Also Tuesday, O2 said it will begin deploying a high-speed 3G network next summer in the hopes of leapfrogging other U.K. carriers with faster data speeds.
