I agree with you on that. A lot of my friends don't have access to email on their phone. MMS, while buggy sometimes, is the only way to send them pictues on the go.
Besides how many people ask for your email address as well when you trade contacts?
Laz: Every cell phone carrier has an MMS e-mail address (10digitphone#@mms.att.net for example) that you can swap pictures with other devices with through e-mail.
I currently have an 8525 on Cingular/AT&T and I've got unlimited MMS, guess how many I've sent? 5 tops? And three of those were in the first week when I was all excited about having it. I don't think you'll be missing much without MMS.
What I don't understand is this, "iPhone users will not be able to conduct IM conversations with IM users". What kind of crap is that? It's MORONIC if they don't include IM tools on the phone, what possible reason could they have for leaving it out?
The only possible excuse is that it will be an early 3rd party app, or an early upgrade you can get.
Either way, I think it's time for me to dump my Apple stock, to rebuy after the release, although I already missed out on that ridiculous temporary swell late last week.
That comparison doesn't apply at all. Hardly anyone used floppies in 1997, and the emergence of other faster/higher capacity/more convenient options such as the internet, CD-Rs, and even Zip disks meant they were obviously on the way out. To the contrary, MMS is presently the de-facto standard for sending pictures, sound and video between devices over the mobile network, and is yet to be superseded by anything significantly better. Making a mobile which doesn't support MMS isn't like making a computer which doesn't have a floppy drive- it's like making one which can't run Microsoft Office. There is no reason to not support MMS.
@Donald:
So if I want to send a picture to someone whose phone doesn't support email (or if I don't know either way- I know people's names and numbers, I don't keep track of what features their phones support!) I have to find out what carrier they're on (which isn't always obvious from the number as people can transfer a number between networks), find out the equivalent email address to forward to their phone as MMS (assuming there is one for every carrier, including outside the US!), hope my email isn't too big or pictures/attachments in the wrong format so it can actually be sent as MMS, and then send it? And if they want to send me one back they need my email as well as my number and have to find an MMS -> email forwarding service? Man, that sounds much more user friendly than the obvious option of just supporting both MMS and email to give you both options, like most other new phones today.
MMS will certainly have to be present for the iPhone that Apple releases in Asia in 2008. They'll never be able to penetrate the market without it. So rest assured, it's coming.
actually dleet, MMS is the future. It seems a bit rudimentary to have to e-mail a picture on your mobile to some one computer. especially for a machine that touts picture,video and music access on your mobile.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Good grief, no MMS! How can they possibly get away with that.
GOOD GRIEF! How did Apple get away with no floppy drive in 1997?!?!?!!!!
Removing a feature sometimes can be a feature to push innovation for a similar service in a better way. Stop crying.
I agree with you on that. A lot of my friends don't have access to email on their phone. MMS, while buggy sometimes, is the only way to send them pictues on the go.
Besides how many people ask for your email address as well when you trade contacts?
Laz: Every cell phone carrier has an MMS e-mail address (10digitphone#@mms.att.net for example) that you can swap pictures with other devices with through e-mail.
I currently have an 8525 on Cingular/AT&T and I've got unlimited MMS, guess how many I've sent? 5 tops? And three of those were in the first week when I was all excited about having it. I don't think you'll be missing much without MMS.
What I don't understand is this, "iPhone users will not be able to conduct IM conversations with IM users". What kind of crap is that? It's MORONIC if they don't include IM tools on the phone, what possible reason could they have for leaving it out?
The only possible excuse is that it will be an early 3rd party app, or an early upgrade you can get.
Either way, I think it's time for me to dump my Apple stock, to rebuy after the release, although I already missed out on that ridiculous temporary swell late last week.
@dleet:
That comparison doesn't apply at all. Hardly anyone used floppies in 1997, and the emergence of other faster/higher capacity/more convenient options such as the internet, CD-Rs, and even Zip disks meant they were obviously on the way out. To the contrary, MMS is presently the de-facto standard for sending pictures, sound and video between devices over the mobile network, and is yet to be superseded by anything significantly better. Making a mobile which doesn't support MMS isn't like making a computer which doesn't have a floppy drive- it's like making one which can't run Microsoft Office. There is no reason to not support MMS.
@Donald:
So if I want to send a picture to someone whose phone doesn't support email (or if I don't know either way- I know people's names and numbers, I don't keep track of what features their phones support!) I have to find out what carrier they're on (which isn't always obvious from the number as people can transfer a number between networks), find out the equivalent email address to forward to their phone as MMS (assuming there is one for every carrier, including outside the US!), hope my email isn't too big or pictures/attachments in the wrong format so it can actually be sent as MMS, and then send it? And if they want to send me one back they need my email as well as my number and have to find an MMS -> email forwarding service? Man, that sounds much more user friendly than the obvious option of just supporting both MMS and email to give you both options, like most other new phones today.
MMS will certainly have to be present for the iPhone that Apple releases in Asia in 2008. They'll never be able to penetrate the market without it. So rest assured, it's coming.
actually dleet, MMS is the future. It seems a bit rudimentary to have to e-mail a picture on your mobile to some one computer. especially for a machine that touts picture,video and music access on your mobile.