Hello Kitty, the world's favorite friendly feline, has made her debut on mobile.

Sanrio, Hello Kitty's distributor, has announced an agreement with mobile entertainment company FunMobility Inc. to make loveable characters Hello Kitty, My Melody, Badtz-Maru, Chococat, Deery-Lou, Tuxedo Sam, Little Twin Stars, Cinnamoroll and Pochacco available to mobile users.

"Sanrio's strategy is interesting because it partners very carefully within each space," said Adam Lavine, CEO of FunMobility, San Francisco. "When Sanrio decides to get into an industry it tends to work with one or two leaders in that space."

Sanrio is making its characters mobile via FunMobility's wallpaper applications such as FunGirl, Wallpaper Universe and FunScreenz.

It will make the character-branded wallpapers available to major carrier storefronts via syndication. The two companies are targeting teenage girls with this offering.

Japanese Sanrio created Hello Kitty over 30 years ago. Initial products stamped with the kitty with the bright red bow included a collection of stationery items and coin purses.

Today, Hello Kitty has become an international phenomenon with a wide range of lifestyle products from notepads to kitchen appliances to luxury jewelry and electronics.

Teenage girls are very mobile and comprise a large portion of branded wallpaper downloads.

"Mobile will help Sanrio reach a broad audience, who would love to incorporate Hello Kitty amongst other characters into their style," Mr. Lavine said. "I think that Hello Kitty is unique because of its audience.

"We may consider ad-support in the future because of the specificity of the audience," he said.
The content is premium and therefore is not ad-supported.

FunMobility develops branded mobile applications. Its partners include carriers T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon and AT&T. Dreamworks, the MLB and Primedia are some of its content partners.

FunMobility distributes applications and content direct to consumers through FunMo.com. It claims 2 million unique users a month visit the site.

"We believe strongly in the power of truly unique and personalized content," Mr. Lavine said. "We are excited bringing characters like Hello Kitty to our users.

"We are going to start with wallpapers and ringtones," he said. "But we are very open to where this relationship may lead. Hello Kitty is this huge brand among teenage girls and the demographic is getting older and older."