The real picture

Sean Dodson for The Guardian has written an insightful and wonderful article on picture phones, describing how these phones are being used in different ways than intended and how the dynamics are so different than the way SMS took off. "Instead of people sending pictures between phones, those who have bought a MMS-compatible phone are more likely to email images to themselves or share them using small networks like Bluetooth or infrared. And numerous community photoblogs are popping up around picture messaging, such as Celebs at Starbucks, "giving picture messaging a life of its own".

"Though mobile carriers will not yet release figures on how many picture messages are being sent in the UK, Vodafone recently stated that as early as next year, it expected 7-10% of revenue would come from picture messaging."

And something to think about: "It's too early to tell how picture messaging is doing, but it is worth remembering that text messaging was first available in 1993 and it did not take off until 1998", concludes Sean Dodson

emily | 5:58 PM | Reports |
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/picturephoning/archives/2003/07/001025.htm