After the huge hopes for MMS around its launch back in 2001, interest quietly waned as the market failed to deliver. This is pretty much what often happens with a new technology and it’s well described by the Gartner Hype Cycle. Essentially, this says that when a new technology is introduced it gets overhyped by vendors, but users don’t really take much notice. After a period of time though, it finally takes off, while vendors have move on to the new, new thing to hype, with predictably disappointing short-term results.
This has certainly been true of WAP, MMS and MP3 players within phones.
However, around 30% of people in Europe currently use MMS, according to M:Metrics, so it’s certainly passed its tipping point.
In my view, there have been a few problems with MMS in the past, if we ignore the blindingly obvious interoperability issue. I remember attending the launch of MMS by O2 and the marketing manager showing research that clearly indicated that being able to send MMS between different operators was a “must have”. Of course, it was - blindingly obvious really - but that didn’t stop the launch going ahead without it.
Cost was also a cause for concern initially, but pricing has got much more reasonable, usability much improved, interoperability cracked and finally, people started to use it.
These factors are pretty obvious really. Make the technology easy to use and reasonably priced and lo and behold, it gets used.
But there’s still a missing piece of the jigsaw if MMS is to really reach its potential. Today, most MMS is used to send and share photos. A quick snap and maybe a caption, hit send and there you have it.
But MMS is capable of a lot more - think a little slide show, with the option of graphics, video and audio. The problem with this from a usability point of view is that it requires some investment in time and commitment, as well as an element of skill, to produce something that looks great. It’s just far easier to snap a photo and send it off - or not bother at all.
I’ve long argued that templates might be a key to unlocking more sophisticated usage of MMS and significantly boosting usage. But one company I met in San Francisco, Hook Mobile, has come up with another elegant solution and one that appears to be working really well.
Hook are a technology enabler, rather than a brand, so work with social network applications and media owners to power MMS services. It’s a complete solution, including interfaces and prices for all the US (currently) carriers, which means that it’s a complete out-of-the-box solution.
An example of a service that they enable is Pic2Phone, running on Facebook. People currently upload their photos to Facebook anyway. So Pic2Phone allows them to create a little slideshow of the latest photos and send them via MMS to their invited friends’ mobiles.
Similarly, VooZoo allows people to send clips from favourite Paramount Pictures’ movies, like Braveheart and Clueless, on a subscription basis - $3.99 a month for unlimited usage and messages.
Once you start thinking about the possibilities offered by Hook’s service, it’s pretty easy to identify loads of potential uses, with Hook doing all the heavy lifting in the background.
If MMS is to start to be anything more that the odd P2P photo sharing message, similar enabling services need to emerge and receive the support of the carrier community in the way of promotion and publicity. Which will mean that MMS will finally come of age and start to generate real revenue for the mobile ecosystem.
Back in 2001, I wrote a book on MMS with Open Garden’s Ajit Jaokar - years ahead of my time, which you might notice is a recurring theme for me. It’s a bad thing, incidentally, as great timing is one of the most important, as well as underestimated, business skills around.
The book unsurprisingly didn’t sell well and would now be hopelessly out of date, so don’t buy it! But maybe we should update and revise it to take advantage of the renewed interest in this area. Having said that, it would be doubly depressing to invest more time and effort, only to have a renewed failure on our hands!
Just wanted to let you know about an alternative to MMS, 211(me) which generates content like MMS, but at tenth of the cost. Check it out at http://www.211me.com
I don’t know about you, MobHappy, but everytime I use VooZoo on Facebook, I get a sideways happy face, on my face. I’m sure the mobile version is just as sweet.
You are very right, Russell; MMS has so much more potential, beyond what it is today, PictureMail…
I have always believed that MMS has tremendous potential, and have been patiently waiting for all the pieces to fall into place (interoperability, cost, etc). But MMS is still not really ready in the US for prime time, but it’s coming.
ceo
There is so much more to MMS than a single picture or music file… personally, I haven’t used the Pic2Phone tool on Facebook, but after reading about it, I think I’ll check it out.
I’m an avid Facebook user and am always looking for different way to stay in touch with others — perhaps sharing a mini slideshow of what’s happening will be the next big thing.
Not this old chestnut ….
See also 2005 http://telephonyonline.com/mag/telecom_potential_mms/
and 2003
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NZB/is_1_5/ai_97574841
etc.
MMS is basically a gonner in the short to medium term.
No use for content providers - just send a link to a mobile friendly website instead - less expensive, better user experience and it is much more likely to work.
Users do send photos - until they start to see the bills. Internet sharing will replace MMS - especially as people start to want to share Mobile to TV or mobile to PC as well as mobile to mobile.
I would agree that mobile internet sharing will eventually replace mms. Although at this moment in time there are some definite user fears of the mobile internet (mainly the cost, which is something the networks must sort out) but until all these are straightened out, mms is here, convenient and still has loads of potential.
Ray, I think you might be taking a pretty harsh view, though long term I’d totally agree. But the user experience of receiving an MMS (admittedly when it works properly) is far superior to getting a link, clicking on it, waiting for your browser to fire up, make the connection and then load the page.
Obviously as phones get better and connection speeds faster, there would need to be a very compelling reason to prefer MMS. But we’re not there yet.
Russell
RE: MMS down (MT), the issue is cost, the per msg fee to send an MMS to the user is going to be closer to 5-10 cents - it’s almost prohibitive for a content provider to build a biz at these prices (after all the other rev-shares) - WAP Push is a lot cheaper although MMS may be a better user experience.
RE: MMS up (MO), the problem is you have to send the MMS to an email address. Until there are MO shortcodes, sending to an email cofuses the end-user - they think they need a Blackberry and/or they have to email it from Gmail etc.
Don’t disagree that MMS is growing P2P but I’m not sure you are going to see commercial MMS in A2P (app to provider) and P2A.
[...] MobHappy - MMS Coming of Age….Finally around 30% of people in Europe currently use MMS, according to M:Metrics, so it’s certainly passed its tipping point. [...]
MMS will live, and here’s why I think so.
Those who believe MMS is dead are wrong. Even though WAP push may be cheaper to deliver an SMS, clicking on the WAP Push link still costs the end user the transmission cost of the content. Although an MMS may cost 5-10 cents, that same content over the mobile web could cost $2.00 if the content is 200kb at $0.01 per kb.
Of course I’ll point out the obvious, we’re all mobile savvy power users here and probably all have flat rate data plans. Unfortunetly, the majority of people in the U.S. don’t. an MMS will consistently cost less to the consumer across all user levels.
Another argument for MMS is that MMS is already built into the most phones. Where as applications require some method of deliver.
I think there are different ways to look at the the way people use the mobile device. For the majority of users, they will use what is most readily available. Simple analogy, people use SMS because it’s quick and effective, the previous argument is like saying SMS will be dead and people in the future will only use mobile web email to message each other.
Once we have interoperability and brands start to utilize MMS for more than just pictures, start using SMIL and developing good experiences via MMS, the technology will start to see uptake at a higher rate.
Didn’t mean to offend anyone, but I get pretty spirited about some issues. I’m a mobile marketer like you all and really appreciate the perspectives.
I also just started a brand spankin’ new site for mobile marketing gurus like yourselves that adds a brand and ad agency perspective. If you guys ever want to contribute content or talk about your products or perspectives, please let me know.
David
http://www.mobilemarketingforbrands.com
[...] to this article at MobHappy, with applications like this that incorporate the technology into users’ daily lives, MMS may [...]