I’ve been scouring CTIA for MobileCrunch worthy material and I think I’ve found something. What do you get when you meld Second Life with mobile ad serving with Japanese teenagers? eXplo.
EXplo is an odd 3D environment that runs on almost any handset and allows you to chat, share photos, and view video and stream music in a simulated world. The world I saw was fairly small — a little plaza, a cool music video room, and one other participant — but apparently it’s quite popular in Asia and teenagers go there to visit temporary job listings and watch videos.
You can even create a little “sharing room” where you and your buddies go to project images on the screen in front of you. The graphics are fairly primitive but the movement was quite smooth and the concept, while initially silly, is fairly compelling.
No word on U.S. launch, but you can take a closer look at Gemini Mobile.