May 18, 2004
Users Won't Migrate from SMS to MMS
A UK survey has found that 83 per cent of mobile phone users are yet to send an MMS. Content not messaging now expected to drive MMS usage, according to 160chracters.org.
"A survey, generated by market research company NOP, into mobile phone users in Great Britain on behalf of Sicap questioned 771 people aged 15+. It found that although 65% of respondents had an MMS compatible handset, 17% claimed they didn't know how to send one.
The survey revealed that 21% of mobile phone users have so far sent or received an MMS message. Of this group photo messages of friends and family were the most popular type of service with 78 per cent have sent or received this type of MMS.
Speaking at IBC's Global Messaging Congress last week, Philippe Poutonnet, Analyst at Jupiter Research said that MMS traffic won't eat into SMS traffic. The reality is that email on mobiles is bigger competitor to SMS traffic than MMS he said. The challenge is that while the average price of an SMS is 0.15 euros, an email costs 0.02. An even bigger threat to operators SMS revenues is Instant Messaging on mobiles.
However Mike Grenville from 160 Characters said that "while there will inevitably be new ways of messaging on mobiles, they will be complimentary to SMS rather than replace it as some have claimed."
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