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MMS set to take off
in 2003 ONE of the hottest topics these days is Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). As always, MMS is widely tipped as a key killer app that will break the largest digital cellular segment in the world out of the staggering voice rut and set it firmly in the direction of proper 2.5G data. Already over 50 GSM operators have commercially launched MMS services, bringing multimedia messaging to a potential of almost 500 million users, and there are new launches weekly. Analyst estimates are equally upbeat. Forrester, for example, expects MMS to account for 32 per cent of total mobile message revenues by 2006. Ovum predicts MMS handset penetration will hit 50 per cent in three years, while MMS messages will account for up to 30 per cent of all person-to-person messaging.And all this with just two MMS-capable handsets on the market. Between Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and several other players, there should be at least 20 MMS handsets on the street by the first half of next year 2003. More than half the volume of phones sold by Nokia will be MMS-enabled. Pricing options Indeed – pricing MMS is a tricky business, in no small part because the business model of its predecessor, SMS, is so well established. The tricky bit is that applying the SMS business model to MMS is not a good idea. MMS is not SMS on steroids. If you compare them in terms of billing, costs, availability, and how people use SMS and MMS, the same models don’t apply the same way to both. For example, the user experience for person-to-person SMS is simply a matter of typing a message and sending it. With MMS, you have more content creation usability than before, because you can attach pictures and sound to your message. You also have the option of creating your own images and sound, or you can buy or rip content from a content site and send it along with your message. It’s the difference between communication, which is what MMS is about, and entertainment. Another aspect of this is that while SMS charges tend to be fairly straightforward, MMS can be priced several different ways. Operators typically charge for SMS by the message. Sometimes they might charge a monthly fee as well, or they might put together a bundled talk and text package. With MMS, you have to choose from : per message, per data unit, or a flat rate. All three options are getting a workout from different operators all over the planet, and in various combinations, but a report from EMC World Cellular Data Metrics says that on an average, MMS tends to be priced at three or four times the price of SMS. Charging by the kilobyte or megabyte is the most controversial of the pricing options. Proponents saying that this is the only way to either keep excessive downloaders from hogging bandwidth or generate as much revenue from them as possible. Critics argue that per-byte tariffs will just confound users who won’t want to keep track of their bit counts. Content Another issue is content. Camphones and picture messaging are only part of the MMS equation – there’s also graphics and animated downloads (think Web greeting cards for mobile phones) , as well as news, sports, games and other items. Like MMS charges, content tariffs vary between operators and markets. Of the free content out there, the most popular items are cartoons, news, goals, and predictably – playmate of the day. Operators differ on how much to charge for MMS content, or whether to charge anything at all, so it will take more time to see which models pay off and which don’t. One issue that operators need to consider either way, is digitals right management – which isn’t just a problem of copyright, but also of what customers can do with content. For example, should customers be allowed to forward content or not? Some operators might feel that forwarding pictures takes away business, while others think that a person who is sent a picture from a particular content site might be encouraged to visit the site and download their own pictures to send to friends. Roaming Where MMS goes from here
remains to be seen, as usual – its all going to be touch-and-go over
the next year as operators find their feet and more handsets come on the
market. There’s no indication yet on where the MMS mass market is.
Right now, MMS handsets are priced rather high, so you have to ask if
the young users have been priced out of the market. |
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