New Portal to Second Life: Your Phone
Cell-phone users can now make the ultimate long-distance call: to friends in the virtual world
By Wade Roush in Technology Review
Article Summary
With new software by Comverse, citizens of the burgeoning online universe Second Life will never have to leave their cozy virtual world, even when they're away from their computers, using mobile phones.
Comverse, the wireless multimedia networking company that developed the software, demonstrated it this week for wireless carriers at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona, Spain. Attendees using Comverse's phones could communicate with Second Life residents, and access the game to see and manipulate avatars who appeared in Comverse's virtual 3GSM booth inside Second Life.
"We're unleashing the virtual world from the PC and allowing it to be available on any terminal--that's the benefit for the end user," says Daphna Steinmetz, head of Comverse's Innovation Labs, in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The article then explores the evolution of second life, talking about how these virtual worlds are experiencing rapid growth, both in population and virtual acreage.
For cellular operators, says Steinmetz, the program's appeal should be twofold: not only will cellular subscribers have an incentive to spend more time using lucrative broadband data services, but users already inside Second Life will be able to communicate with friends on specific cellular networks using virtual phones branded and sold by the carriers themselves. "Operators get an immediate audience of 3.5 million people who don't necessarily belong to their geographical area," says Steinmetz.
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