And we thought SMS was good!

Soon, a new messaging standard will be made available to us.  Abbreviated MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), it allows for the sending of audio, video, and images along with possible text within the same message.  Where we are currently restricted to the 160-character limit for SMS messages which are barely enough for us to express ourselves, MMS will provide users the opportunity to add full colour to what they want to convey and not being restricted to just typing words on a keypad (not the simplest of things to do for some!)

EMS – Creative SMS

Although there are phones around that can send more than just words on a screen (including Nokia’s picture messages and Ericsson’s enhanced messages through EMS), these maintain the use of existing network infrastructure and technology to relay such messages through and are still very restrictive in comparison to MMS. A picture message is just an SMS message that allocates a particular segment of the overall message to display a picture made up of pixels, and the remaining capacity allowing for a short text message.  EMS (enhanced message service) allows for a user to add objects (including pictures, sounds, and melodies) into an overall text message. EMS (enhanced message service) allows for a user to add objects (including pictures, sounds, and melodies) into an overall text message. Although both of these help to diversify the messaging possibilities, the biggest downfall is the inability to read these on phones not supporting such functionality.  With support for picture messages and EMS restricted to various Nokia and Ericsson phones respectively, the lack of compatibility drives possible usage down significantly.

MMS – Enhancement of personal connectivity through immediate exchange of rich content

One very important difference of MMS is that it is somewhat a standard in itself – similar to that of SMS.  Therefore, messaging using MMS will allow for it to be received and experienced without the worries of compatibility and readability.  MMS enables messaging with full content versatility, including images, audio, video, data and text, from terminal to terminal (for example, one mobile phone to another) or from a terminal to an email address.  MMS content can include one or several of the previously-mentioned content types that contain minimal restrictions to message size or format.

Yes, the possibilities are quite endless when we’re able to just put more than text in our messages!  But at the end of the day, the more information that we try to put into a message and send it off will require greater space and time to send off because of the final message size.  On the mobile network’s current infrastructure and available technology, sending such information over it will take a long time and is unfeasible (maybe that’s why we never had MMS?!)

By next year, a greater number of pre-3G phones will start hitting the streets giving users greater capabilities in accessing data services, such as WAP.   At the moment, we already see some phones that come with a feature called GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) offering faster and the possibility of always-on data connections on a mobile phone.  This will give MMS the first chance to grow because it is able to rely on GPRS to relay its message of a possible immense size (compared to SMS) from a user’s mobile to another.

The “Multimedia” menu on the new Nokia 7650

So don’t be too excited about being able to take a picture of yourself, spice it up with some audio and send it off to your mate’s phone quite yet.  Although GPRS is becoming available to our GSM networks in Australia, the phones have yet to be released into the market.  The first of many that will begin supporting MMS should appear by the middle of 2002, with one of them being the Nokia 7650 – boasting a colour screen, an on-phone digital camera and new user interface to support possible applications for MMS and other high-speed data services over GPRS.

When more details on MMS and how it can benefit all of us better than SMS come along, be sure to hear from us at iMobile!

Related links:

Ericsson on MMS

Nokia on MMS