June 10, 2003
Picture Messaging language: Trend or mobile operator hype?
According to Dave McGlade, president of British mobile operator MM02 and interviewed in eWeek and picked up on favorite bookmark SMS: Business Gets the Message, "MMS users have started a trend called "Celebing," which entails sending a picture of a celebrity to a friend in lieu of a text message. For example, a picture of Britney Spears means "fancy a few beers?" and a picture of guitarist Hank Marvin means "I'm starvin'".
Hmmm... One wonders if this is not a) simply wishful thinking on the part of mobile operators or b), a push to create a trend which will never happen. Sounds like a very expensive way to communicate... Would anyone understand what I'm saying if I send a picture of Bill Gates? ("Do something to make Outlook more secure!")
A similar statement was made in recent months by a Vodafone spokesman: "Another language will grow up around picture messaging as it did around text messaging" and 02 encourages it's subscribers online to "invent their own language" by sending multiple pictures to form a sentence... (click on demo to take a look). Dream On is what I say.
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