MMS: Mobile's Massive Stupidity?
from the maybe... dept
I recently had a discussion with someone here who is (as far as I can tell) the only person I know who really strongly believes that mutli-media messaging (MMS) is the next big thing. I simply don’t see how it’s that useful. Here’s an article that seems to agree with me and suggests that carriers are hyping MMS because they need to hype something. They point out a number of the problems with MMS. It’s not simple. It’s not cheap. It’s not really useful in the way SMS is. My friend insists that I just don’t understand how the “kids today” will pick up on it – and maybe he’s right. However, for now I’m not willing to believe that MMS is a big deal.
Comments on “MMS: Mobile's Massive Stupidity?”
Sigh...
I find this sort of thing hilarious. I can just see the thought process of a phone company: “Hm, the average kid in Finland sends 500 SMS messages a month. If we give them the opportunity to send photo MMS messages at a euro a pop, they’ll be giving us 500 euros a month each!” There are so many things wrong in that sentence I don’t know where to start.
No Subject Given
I was just at the GSM World conference in Cannes, and they’re all over this MMS stuff. I had a fairly long chat with Don Listwin of Openwave at one point during the show, and it seems that what they’re really hoping for is full on IM services to be a hit with the kids. They’re basically banking on ‘presence’ and conferencing to generate extra revenues.
If you want an example of the kind of product that may just drive MMS, though, take a long hard look at the new Nokia 7650, as I did (http://www.nokia.com/phones/7650/). It’s a great piece of kit and has enough features to be really compelling as an executive tool as well.
Ah well, time will tell. 🙂
By the way it’s amazing how a colour screen on a mobile handset can change the perception of how one uses these devices. It becomes much more of a flexible tool, or at least that’s how it seemed to me after a while.