19th October, London - Masabi, the leading producer of consumer and mobile marketing java applications for mobile phones, today launched Pick the Prez - a free java game which allows players to bash the candidate of their choice and then cast their vote in an online poll. The game can then be shared with friends via SMS from the handsets or emails which can be sent from www.picktheprez.com.
Pick the Prez was conceived by Masabi when the company was researching into viral distribution for mobile Java Midlets. The resulting game combines networked voting together with in-game viral distribution via SMS supported on a wide range of handsets.
"Everyone has an opinion on the US Elections but as many of us aren’t Americans we obviously can’t vote" said Tom Godber, CTO of Masabi. "We were also interested to see who the world would vote for if they had the choice, so we created Pick the Prez to get a meaningful gauge of the world’s choice for the President. At the same time we thought we’d bring some much needed comedy to the whole situation".
Masabi makes consumer applications for mobile phones. Phones are no longer just about making phone calls or sending texts, they are becoming fully functioning computers. Current Masabi applications range from educational games to gambling account managers to mobile books which 'publish' text and images onto the handset.
Masabi was founded as a mobile games developer in late 2001 by a group of friends wanting to bring the classic home computer game Repton to mobile phones. The company has since refocused on delivering consumer applications to mobile phones, drawing on the expertise and experience from the mobile gaming world.
Masabi works in a range of ways: it works directly with B2C companies to help them extend their products and services to their customers, it helps marketing companies to create innovative and creative mobile campaigns, and its application designers constantly work on consumer applications that change the way mobiles are used.