The 13.5 million American Alltel customers have, from now own, a new 3D animated MMS greeting service that comes to take mobile multimedia messaging to the next level. 

Leveraging on the Xend 3D hosted platform provided by Vidiator (a company based in Bellevue, Washington), Alltel Avatars allows mobile users to choose from a wide range of pre-produced animated greetings. Moreover, everyone can create personalized greetings by using their own photos, voice and 3D avatars. 

Alltel's avatar-based content is available to any of the carrier's customers, as long as they are subscribers of its MMS service and they have a device that can play 3GP video files (like HTC Touch, LG Glimmer, Motorola Z6m and so on).

"Taking messaging beyond simple text, the introduction of 3D avatars represents the next evolution of wireless communications. The vast level of personalization offered to our customers via Alltel Avatars provides them with a new vehicle to express their emotions, style and personality," says Craig Kirkland, Alltel Wireless' vice president of Messaging and Voice Services.

Connie Wong, chief executive officer at Vidiator, further adds: "3D animated avatar-based mobile messaging driven by Xend 3D goes well beyond simple text, and is the next big leap in mobile messaging. It enables carriers to easily bridge the gap between SMS and new 'entertainment-focused' MMS messaging applications and advertising; and for consumers, we think this type of services will change the way people communicate with their mobile devices by allowing them to richly express their emotions through voice, animation and 3D like never before."

Alltel is offering the new Avatars service for as little as 0.99 USD. In this price, hundreds of avatars are available. Users are also able to add personal audio tracks, personal digital signatures or emoticons to the MMS messages they send. Furthermore, animated images can be combined with audio messages and sent either to another mobile device or via e-mail.