iPhone Users Get their MMS Fix

Entities Mentioned

• AT&T
• Airwide Solutions
• iPhone

1. 

   Yesterday AT&T confirmed that iPhone users will be getting MMS capabilities starting September 25^th. As we all know this has been a sticking point for many iPhone users; why a feature-full, application-stocked device like the iPhone still lacked MMS capabilities well over a year after launching? It’s good to see that iPhone users will finally be getting their MMS fix at the end of the month.

    

   No doubt the introduction of iPhone apps was a watershed moment for the device and the mobile industry as a whole, but this year-long clamoring for MMS also proves that “traditional” (and I use the term loosely) messaging types such MMS are critical to app user-experience and adoption. Now that MMS is available on the device, watch out for more and more use of the messaging platform for interaction with content providers and popular apps. In addition, I suspect we’ll see a flurry of new apps developed very quickly where MMS is an integral component.

    

   So what’s the lesson in all this (other than to get your iPhone cameras ready)?

   
   

   Well first, MMS is apparently alive and well, given the public market pull for it (Airwide has know that for a while, though). Carriers and app developers take note: demand for traditional messaging types is strong and the application and revenue  opportunities(i.e. tuning your apps to integrate with MMS and other messaging services) are huge. We’ll see MMS numbers increase across the board as iPhone users stimulate a messaging flurry to other iPhone and  non iPhone users. Which leads me to my second point: carries shouldn’t underestimate the value of their infrastructure. App traffic tied to MMS and SMS will be high which will ask even more of their infrastructure.  Also, with iPhone to non-iPhone messaging carries will be tasked with adapting high resolution content from iPhone devices to devices that don’t support that. Again, look to infrastructure reevaluations to address this challenge.

   
   Finally- enjoy the ride! Messaging just got another boost and that’s great for everyone in our industry.

    

   Thoughts? What do you think will be the most impacted apps once MMS on the iPhone is launched? We want to know….

    

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