Comments on: Holidays 2007 Were NOT The Year Of The MMS http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2008/01/holidays_2007_were_not_the_year_of_the_mms.html Daily news and opinion for 250,000 industry executives and mobile fanatics Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:14:00 +0100 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Chris Wilson http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2008/01/holidays_2007_were_not_the_year_of_the_mms.html/comment-page-1#comment-206412 Chris Wilson Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:36:23 +0000 http://www.smstextnews.com/2008/01/holidays_2007_were_not_the_year_of_the_mms.html#comment-206412 SMS is simple. Your phone can send each message to exactly one recipient at a time. Your N95 has a handy feature that gives you the illusion of being able to send one message to all your contacts; it just sits there sending out copies one at a time to each of the recipients. Nice and simple; your mobile operator bills you for each message, if you choose you get delivery reports for each part, no more complicated than sending 1 message, but your handset repeats the process for you. Now MMS. Unfortunately this was designed by a committee of IT-types (rather than Telecoms-types) who sat around saying "Wouldn't it be nice if...." and all sorts of rubbish got added. There are now numerous where you can choose 1 of 17 different methods for getting the same result. So when your phone submits a message to the mobile operator it can specify lots of recipients, bit like an email. This is a mandatory part of the MMS spec; so carriers MMSCs must support it. Unfortunately the MMS spec doesn't answer all the questions that come as a result of that -> how does billing work? what if you've only got credit for the first 230 messages and the last 5 takes you over your credit limit? how can delivery reports be handled sensibly? So MMSC vendors pick some "sensiblish" values and limit things so that it's not too abusable. Now your handset vendors have a problem - they can't simply decide to act like they did with SMS, because there will be a carrier out there that charges more for two messages to different recipients rather than one message to two recipients, so unlike SMS where the handset doesn't limit you to the limits of the SMSC with MMS it ends up having to. MMS once again screws itself over with it's own complexity bloat. SMS is here to stay :-D SMS is simple. Your phone can send each message to exactly one recipient at a time. Your N95 has a handy feature that gives you the illusion of being able to send one message to all your contacts; it just sits there sending out copies one at a time to each of the recipients. Nice and simple; your mobile operator bills you for each message, if you choose you get delivery reports for each part, no more complicated than sending 1 message, but your handset repeats the process for you.

Now MMS. Unfortunately this was designed by a committee of IT-types (rather than Telecoms-types) who sat around saying “Wouldn’t it be nice if….” and all sorts of rubbish got added. There are now numerous where you can choose 1 of 17 different methods for getting the same result. So when your phone submits a message to the mobile operator it can specify lots of recipients, bit like an email. This is a mandatory part of the MMS spec; so carriers MMSCs must support it. Unfortunately the MMS spec doesn’t answer all the questions that come as a result of that -> how does billing work? what if you’ve only got credit for the first 230 messages and the last 5 takes you over your credit limit? how can delivery reports be handled sensibly? So MMSC vendors pick some “sensiblish” values and limit things so that it’s not too abusable. Now your handset vendors have a problem – they can’t simply decide to act like they did with SMS, because there will be a carrier out there that charges more for two messages to different recipients rather than one message to two recipients, so unlike SMS where the handset doesn’t limit you to the limits of the SMSC with MMS it ends up having to. MMS once again screws itself over with it’s own complexity bloat. SMS is here to stay :-D

]]> By: SE Fanboy http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2008/01/holidays_2007_were_not_the_year_of_the_mms.html/comment-page-1#comment-206407 SE Fanboy Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:58:15 +0000 http://www.smstextnews.com/2008/01/holidays_2007_were_not_the_year_of_the_mms.html#comment-206407 Ewan, I was on T-Mobile on my last contract (14 months ago), I used to love sending MMS then. Now I'm on Vodafone, I used to get 10 free MMS in the beginning, then they (Vodafone) stopped giving them free when the £7.50 mobile internet started. My contract is nearly up and am thinking of jumping ship to 3. Ewan, I was on T-Mobile on my last contract (14 months ago), I used to love sending MMS then. Now I’m on Vodafone, I used to get 10 free MMS in the beginning, then they (Vodafone) stopped giving them free when the £7.50 mobile internet started. My contract is nearly up and am thinking of jumping ship to 3.

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