re: "The Buck" on MMS
>> Multimedia Messages Rewrite the SMS Rules
Simon Buckingham
New Media Age
Nov 30 2001
"Transition from SMS to MMS is akin in importance to the mobile market as the transition from DOS to Windows was for the PC market"
In the depressed mobile market that underlies a fundamental transition from voice to data, multimedia messaging is heralded by all players as the killer app for GPRS and a key business case driver for 3G. I believe that the transition from SMS to MMS is akin in importance to the mobile market as the transition from DOS to Windows was for the PC market.
Multimedia messaging services (MMS) offer, as the name suggests, the ability to send and receive rich-media messages comprising a blend of text, images, sounds and video to and from MMS-capable handsets. MMS confers the ability to send still images such as mobile postcards, mobile pictures, mobile screensavers, mobile greeting cards, maps and business cards. Moving images, cartoons and interactive video will also be supported by MMS.
However, as with all mobile services, MMS will take a while to establish itself. The first MMS terminal, the Ericsson T68, has been delayed by three months to the end of Q1 2002. Ericsson is citing interoperability testing issues as the reason for the delay. It's initially shipping the T68 with EMS and without MMS, another indication of the growing momentum for EMS (enhanced messaging service) as an interim standard between SMS and MMS. T68s sold now will be upgradable to support MMS. The MMS T68 is a superb device in terms of form factor, user interface and user experience.
Network operators have placed 40 or so MMS commercial or trial contracts, indicating a high degree of interest in MMS. However, these trials will take a while to be installed and tested. The only UK MMS trial announced so far is Orange UK, working with Logica.
Although MMS is being placed as an evolution and extension of SMS, the two services are in fact very different. Divergences have been found in the areas of user behaviour, discretion levels (SMS is very discreet, taking photos isn't), available device types (high-end phones with colour screens for MMS), service access and complexity (different audio, video and image types will be supported by different MMS devices).
Unlike SMS, most multimedia messages won't be sent from phone to phone or person to person. Instead they will be sent from or to PCs and will be value-added services based around still images.
Mobile Streams predicts an average expenditure per customer on MMS of $48 (GBR34) per month, spent on various subscription services. It also predicts that 20bn multimedia messages will be sent globally in December 2006, growing to 65bn by December 2008. At an average price of 70p per multimedia message, the mobile messaging market will be worth trillions of dollars within years.
MMS really is a great service. However, it'll take years to reach critical mass as SMS continues to spread around the world, EMS is offered and high-end multimedia terminals are developed.
Simon Buckingham is CEO of Mobile Streams and author of 'Data on MMS' <<
- Eric - |
