Unlike other mobile games, Millionaire, as its name suggests, involves real money. For its first season from 12 November to 31 December 2001, a top prize of $10,000 (or 1,000,000 cents for the purists) stands to be won.

The way mobile Millionaire is played follows closely that of its TV counterpart. Players have to answer increasingly challenging questions as they move up the score tree. They can also call on the familiar lifelines such as "50:50" and "Ask the audience" for help. Points are awarded for every correct answer and the player with the highest score and fastest time recorded at the end of the season will win the cash prize.

The beauty of mobile Millionaire is that anyone with a mobile phone that supports SMS can play the game straight away. There is no registration or monthly subscription fees to be paid. Players are charged 40 cents for every SMS received during the game.

"I am confident that Millionaire will be a hit with our customers as it is already well-known and has a huge following in Singapore. The game is based on SMS and will appeal strongly to our customers who are extremely SMS savvy. It is also good for those who would like to try the game but prefer to play it in private, away from the glare of the television lights," said Neil Montefiore, Chief Executive Officer of M1.

Singapore will be one of the first markets in Asia to enjoy Mobile Millionaire which is distributed by Motorola. "The introduction of mobile Millionaire reaffirms Motorola's commitment to provide exciting, value-added mobile services to operators and consumers," said Alan Goh, Motorola Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, VP and Regional Director, Marketing for South Asia of Personal Communications Sector.

"Through esteemed partners like M1, Motorola will offer a portfolio of wireless entertainment, extending well-known brands into the mobile space, and developing new and exciting mobile games with application providers."

M1, Singapore's most exciting and innovative mobile, IDD and paging service provider, was launched in April 1997. Since then, it has made significant inroads into the local mobile communications market, gaining considerable brand presence and market share. M1 aims to be the leader in personal voice and data communications, focusing on value, quality and customer service.