Viximo's True Flirt and VixML Bring Virtual Gifting and Development to iPhone

Today Viximo announced a new development platform for iPhone that would allow users to develop and sell their own applications using a simplified version of XML, reports TechCrunch. Called VixML, this new platform ties in to Viximo's $5.99 True Flirt premium app, also announced today. Users can develop and sell their own "Flirts" using a mark-up language based on XML. If they are not so developmentally inclined, they will also be able to purchase and send other users' Flirts.

The Flirts that users can develop with VixML are essentially virtual goods that act as greetings, sensitive to forms of user input like blowing on the microphone, tilting, or tapping on the touchscreen. VixML also supports a 3D engine that will allow flirts to incorporate particle effects among other visuals. Anyone who has the premium True Flirt installed can buy and send Flirts from their iPhone. Users who receive a Flirt that don't already have the premium app can download a free, limited version of the program that allows them to receive and interact with Flirts, but not to create them.

As the iPhone does not support any true microtransaction system, True Flirt users will be forced to purchase Flirts as part of "Flirt Pack" combos. Individual creators of Flirts must submit their Flirts to Viximo, which in turn submits them for addition to the App Store as part of a Flirt Pack. Viximo has announced that there will be a revenue-sharing model to allow developers of Flirts to receive a cut of the profits every time their Flirt is purchased from the store, but details of the arrangement are not available at this time.

Even with so many details about True Flirt and VixML still forthcoming, this announcement still represents an exciting advance in bringing virtual gifts to the iPhone. Countless new developers will now have a chance to create their own virtual good programs quickly and easily and to turn a profit on their endeavors. What remains to be seen with VixML is how favorable the revenue split between Viximo and individual developers will be, though the company already has a solid stable of developers for its online gifts, and exactly how rapidly True Flirt sells to iPhone users. As one of the first major virtual gifting apps for iPhone, there can be little doubt that True Flirt will find an audience.

Other developers, including Viximo, have worked on creating virtual gift wallets: inventories that aren’t tied to specific social networks. They let users “own” their gifts in a slightly more independent fashion. While these new gifts seem tied to the iPhone, it also represents a whole new opportunity for virtual goods: the pocket. Instead of living in a purely online environment, virtual goods can now go everywhere their owners do—something that, I think, makes them a little more real.