Cellufun has announced Merry Mobile, which it describes as a "cooperative, community game where consumers celebrate the holidays in a mobile virtual world." Users who have homepages on Cellufun's mobile social network can decorate their pages with a holiday theme. More interestingly, though, the Merry Mobile kickoff marks the launch of Cellufun's new Virtual Mall.

The Cellufun Virtual Mall will let users buy and give gifts to one another and participate in gift-giving competitions. Using their mobile profiles and avatars, players can use their "Cellupoints" to 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.

Cellufun says it expects to continue the Virtual Mall beyond the holiday gift-giving season, and expects similar events to take place during Valentine's day.

Cellufun CTO Steve Dacek says, "For most of us, the mobile phone has become an extension of self. At the same time, virtual worlds and social networks have redefined our sense of community. So it made perfect sense to bring the virtual world experience to the phone, and to do it around the holidays. The gifts are virtual, but the joy of giving them is real.”