I don’t quite understand the name, but Sulake, developers of Habbo Hotel, are experimenting with a mobile-based virtual world with their Mini Friday application. There’s nothing especially notable about this aside from the fact that it’s Sulake doing it. They managed to create the 2nd most popular virtual world in the West (after Runescape). Can they be the first to really break open the mobile virtual world space? (Note: You need a Nokia to use Mini Friday…Sulake is Finnish after all.)

More to the point, is there a space to break open there? Do virtual worlds on mobile phones make sense at this stage in mobile technology? Gemini Mobile certainly thinks so. Last month, they released a platform for mobile virtual worlds (kind of a Multiverse for mobile, but less ambitious) called eXplo. So far, Softbank in Japan has created a S! TOWN. I have no idea if Gemini’s tech is any good but they haven’t made much of a splash that I’m aware of. To be fair though, it would be overstating the case to even say that I am a casual mobile phone user. I use mine so little that it can run out of batteries and I won’t notice for days.

So how about those readers who are heavy mobile users? Is a virtual world on a mobile phone something of interest to you? I’m not necessarily talking about MMORPGs here either. I’m thinking more of a Mini Friday, as it’s a much lighter application. If you’re on the bus or train, would participating in conversation in mobile-accessed virtual world (keeping in mind the severe limits that mobile platforms impose as compared to PCs) be of interest? Is it preferable to texting your friends or would you view it as a different kind of activity? I’m just really not in touch with the mobile market generally, but presumably some of you are.

Keep in mind that I’m not talking about mobile applications that extend current virtual worlds. I think being able to access  a sub-set of your favored virtual world via a mobile phone has real possibilities, but I’m not (yet) convinced that stand-alone virtual worlds are ready for primetime on mobile yet.