The Perils of 'Digital Double Vision'

A thought provoking article by the Jason Fry for The Wall Street Journal on how digital technology lets us chronicle our lives, but suggesting maybe we should be living them instead.

... "Last month, during a beach vacation, I caught myself flipping through pictures taken just minutes or hours before, with friends and family in the same room. I stopped, horrified, only to find myself doing the same thing the next night. How did I spend my vacation? In part, by reviewing that same vacation while it was in progress.

...Technologies tempt us to shift back and forth from living life to observing ourselves living it -- leading to a weirdly alienating self-consciousness.

... "The phenomenon of standing back and observing our lives is becoming more and more psychologically significant," says Sherry Turkle, an MIT professor who's the director of the school's Initiative on Technology and the Self.

"Part of living now, is setting up a set of parallel lives where we get to observe our externalizations of self," Dr. Turkle adds. "There can be a positive here -- if that leads to a new self-reflection. We see ourselves refracted in our lives on the screen; it gives us an opportunity to think about ourselves in a new way. But there is a downside: We become alienated from all of these 'second selves,' and feel emptied out by our multiple existences -- online lives that leave us, the physical us, lonely and alone at a screen."

Poor user experience puts consumers off mobile TV in droves

Consumers want mobile television but are being put off by poor design and user experience according to research released today by user centred design and research consultancy Amberlight. Weaknesses include:

-- Poor quality reception - patchy 3G coverage with interruptions

-- Slow start up speed - The time taken to access the service through menu structures and connection time was between two and five minutes

-- Cost - flat rate vs pay-as-you-go issues were raised in the study

-- Usability -Many aspects of the service were simply considered unnecessarily complicated to use

-- On screen displays - such as details of current show and channel were considered important

-- Programme guides - not easily available

This research proves that there is a demand for mobile TV but that it‚s currently being stifled by poor design and implementation. If operators could make their services easy to use and competitively priced then there is a real opportunity to become a valuable tool for people with time to kill.

For more information or to receive a full version of the report: contact Patrick Herridge Parys Communications. pherridge@parys.com

New study questions mobile TV and music hype

Americans may not be as enamored by the idea of watching TV and listening to music on their cell phones as mobile carriers had hoped, reports News.com.

"According to a survey conducted by RBC Capital Markets, about 75 percent of roughly 1,000 people polled said they had no interest in watching TV on their cell phones. And about 70 percent said they didn't see themselves using their cell phones for musical entertainment.

Linda Barrabee, a senior analyst at
The Yankee Group, said that there was a similar response to a survey her research firm conducted last July.

"I think it's really hard for most people to imagine what the experience of mobile TV would even be," she said. "Right now, most people are using phones that aren't even 3G (third generation) compatible. I think they'll have to see how it can really work and fit into their lives before they can really judge whether they want it."

Sprint U.S. Consumer Wireless Usage Study

Today Sprint announced the results of the Sprint U.S. Consumer Wireless Usage Study, a nationwide survey of wireless phone users.

The findings show that more than half of wireless phone subscribers (56 percent) rely on their mobile phones for features such as cameras, clocks, calendars, messaging, music and as a substitute flashlight for seeing in dark places.

... Consumers are still flipping for flip phones, the phone style preferred by 70 percent of respondents. The next most popular was a "candy bar" style phone, savored by 18 percent. A rugged phone, business device and slider phone were each the style of choice for 4 percent.

... When asked what more mainstream features and functions wireless phone users might be interested in adding to their phone, still image cameras still topped the list (29 percent), followed by music players (22 percent) and video cameras (18 percent). A healthy portion of respondents expressed interest in instant messaging (15 percent), and games and TV/video clips both earned 8 percent of the vote.

[Press Release]

Camera Phones Not Mobile Music

A survey from Parks Associates finds that US consumers are more interested in camera phones than music phones, reports 160characters.org.

"Although the industry is currently focused on iPods and Motorola's new music phone ROKR, consumers would rather have a camera phone," said Vibha Pant, an analyst with Parks Associates. "Moreover, the impending introduction of advanced mega-pixel camera phones will strengthen demand, which will create great opportunities for service providers to increase their ARPU by offering photo sharing, photo printing, and other applications."

The prospects for music phones should not be discounted, though, with approximately 14 million U.S. homes expressing an interest in such a device, making it a more popular item than a smart phone. "

CEA Research Finds Digital Cameras Remain Primary Picture Taking Device

Even as they increase in popularity, camera phones are not likely to replace digital cameras and camcorders as consumers' primary picture taking device, according to a study recently released by the Consumer Electronics Association CEA), reports Cameratown.

The CEA found that some 91 percent of digital camera owners consider their digital camera to be their main photography device.

CEA's "Digital Imaging Study: Sharing and Storing Pictures and Video," also revealed that consumers are unaware of the need to archive their digital photos and video - an issue of increasing importance as the penetration rate for digital cameras nears 50 percent with those camera owners snapping billions of pictures each year."

Cameraphones as Personal Storytelling Media

The cameraphone exists at this moment in that ephemeral, potent and confusing phase of its adoption cycle where people are still deciding what kind of social medium it is, writes Howard Rheingold for TheFeature.com, in a must read essay summarizing Mizuko Ito and Daisuke Okabe's previous observations of Japanese mobile phone users.

"Although these devices transmit images through the Internet, they are also turning out, rather unexpectedly, to be face-to-face media. It looks like this newly ubiquitous device could be more about flows of moments than stocks of images, more about sharing presence than transporting messages, and ultimately, more about personal narrative than factual communication."

Advanced Cell Phones Vulnerable to Glitches

As handsets are packed with such advanced features as camera, TV, MP3 and credit card, reports on handset glitches are amounting. Phone users contend that the product intermittently powers down while its bell is ringing, reports prolific writer Seong-ju Lee for Telecoms Korea.

"According to Korea Consumer Protection Board, about 3500 complaints about handset glitches have bombarded the organization.

YMCA argued, “Handset glitches are mainly due to lack of sufficient tests on the part of manufacturers as they are bent on selling more phones than their competitors. They are ignoring the glitches of cell phones as they replace an old model with a new one in a very short period of time.” “If those problems remain unresolved, it would have negative impact on Korean handsets in the global market.”, they said."

More cameraphones sold this year than digital cameras?

Sales of cell phones with cameras are threatening the success of digital cameras, reports German paper heise online.

"According to recent forecasts of market researchers Gartner and InfoTrends, sales of digital cameras should grow by 42 percent this year; however, for the first time more cell phones with integrated cameras are to be sold than digital cameras.

Lessons U.S. Can Learn

In heavily networked Japan and South Korea, young people don't think twice about using their mobile phones to create short movies, watch the Webcam inside their home or download pop songs from the Internet, reports the
WSJ.

Lesson No. 1: Phones need to be sleek and small. Bulky phones are not popular.

Lesson No. 2: Target the youth market. In Asia, phone companies went after this group initially rather than business customers.

Lesson No. 3: Teaming up produces results. Japanese and Korean mobile operators worked in close collaboration with local phone makers to devise innovative services.

Final lesson: Don't make companies bid for new parts of the wireless spectrum to offer 3G. This cost operators in Europe a lot of money. Japan and South Korea didn't hold auctions for 3G licenses, which meant Asian providers could spend money instead on research and development.

NTT DoCoMo: Review of a Case

I-mode has transformed the way Japanese, especially youth, communicate privately and publicly and serves a different social function than the PC Internet.

In this academic paper recently presented at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, new media researcher Jack Qiu explores the influence of NTT DoCoMo's mobile Internet platform on Japanese society. [ Japan Media Review via Clippings Reblog

Picture messaging loses its appeal

Yet another article, this time by the MediaGuardian, on the declining number of picture messages sent over UK networks.

"Research shows that the frequency with which camera phone owners are sending picture messages is decreasing as the overall user base grows. A year ago 8% of early adopters were sending a photo message once a day, which has dropped to 3%.

More than one in three users admit to never using their camera-enabled phone to send pictures, up from a quarter a year ago.

The average number of photo messages sent per user per month has dropped
from 6.1 to 3.7, although the decrease can be partly explained by the fact that more recent converts are as unlikely to be enthusiastic as early adopters.

Figures from Continental Research show that there are now more than 7.5 million handsets in circulation capable of taking pictures, up from 3 million a year ago."

Photo messaging needs a kickstart

A survey carried out by Continental Research into the behaviour of British mobile phone users has some very worrying findings for network operators, particularly where cameraphones are concerned, reports the The Inquirer.

"The Autumn 2004 Mobile Phone Report discovered that:

-- 36 per cent of cameraphone users have never sent a photo message (MMS) compared to 27 per cent in 2003.

-- Plus the average number of messages sent per month per user has dropped from 6.1 to 3.7 messages. This is against a background of 7.5 million cameraphone users against 3.5 million in 2003.

This means that in real terms the number of MMS messages sent has risen to only 27.7 million per month compared to 21.3 million.

Part of the problem lies with education. Only 11 per cent of handset owners regard themselves as technologically savvy while nearly one third (29 per cent) are technophobes who shy away from the latest innovations."

Are Camera-Phones Ready To Make Consumer Prints?

Research and Markets has announced the launch of a new report, entitled 4 x 6 Shoot-Out: Are Camera-Phones Ready To Make Consumer Prints?

Camera-phones are on the verge of delivering the snapshot capabilities that people currently expect from single-use film cameras and entry-level digital cameras. The recent release of two-megapixel camera-phones by all three Japanese wireless carriers raises the question: Why buy a digital camera?

The purpose of this
36-page study by , including 119 figures, charts, and tables, was to determine if currently available camera-phones are capable of delivering acceptable consumer prints and to assess how the images produced measure up to those produced by the most popular standalone consumer cameras.

Future Image Announces the Mobile Imaging Report Service

Today Future Image, Inc. announced the launch of the Mobile Imaging Report service (MIR), a set of resources that covers the exploding camera-phone industry with in-depth news, market research and personal consultation. This is an update to its continuous information service previously known as the Future Image WIRE, according to a company press release

Subscription prices range from $3,500 to $12,500 per year. Details are available at the web site http://www.mobileimagingreport.com or by contacting Joe Byrd via Jbyrd@FutureImage.com.

Letting Camera Phone Users Off The Hook

Tony Henning has written a very interesting article in Forbes on how US subscribers are not going to be able to take full advantage of the new higher-resolution camera phones simply because wireless operators won't let them--not because of technical limitations.

"It strikes us extremely shortsighted for the carriers to subsidize phones that don't let users get their pictures off the phones any other way.

What the operators should be doing instead is trying to find new ways to profit from camera-phone pictures. If the carriers aren't maximizing the revenue they can make by letting consumers do anything they want with the pictures these camera phones can produce, then why on Earth are they letting us pay just $150 for a phone that costs $500 or more to make?

There are lots of lessons to be learned along these lines from markets outside the United States. In Japan, for instance, they have camera phones with 2 and 3 megapixels that produce shots that use at least 500 kilobytes of memory. Customers can't send these photos over the air because the Japanese wireless networks have imposed a 100k to 200k limit on e-mail attachments, which is how picture messaging is done there. That's a problem, but users can remove a phone's memory card and upload pictures to a computer or to a printing kiosk. Their handsets are equipped with infrared ports that let them beam pictures to other devices. Phones there are frequently even shipped with cords or cradles that can connect directly to a computer.

In the U.S., wireless companies don't want to support phones with removable memory or make it easy to connect a camera phone to a PC because they don't want subscribers to bypass the network. Indeed, while some new handsets hitting the market have Bluetooth short-range wireless technology built in, manufacturers that supply phones to U.S. carriers have disabled the ability to use Bluetooth to transfer pictures from the phone.

Consumers haven't noticed that they're being shortchanged, primarily because no one's told them that camera phones can take pictures worth saving--and printing. But that's not going to be the case for too much longer, so carriers need to get their act together.

When camera phones deliver pictures that rival those from cameras, people are going to start snapping shots they want to save."

Australia lags behind in mobile usage

Australia's usage of internet enabled and camera mobile phones is well behind global rates, but local demand for text and picture services shows promise, according to a new study by Mobinet. [smh]

"The Mobinet 2004 study of 5,800 mobile phone users in 15 countries reports that Australia's internet enabled phones penetration rate is36 per cent, below the global average of 47 per cent and well under market leaders South Korea (83 per cent), Japan (79 per cent) and Germany (63 per cent)."

Camera-Phones to replace digital cameras?

Research and Markets announces the addition of this new report entitled "4 x 6 Shoot-Out: Are Camera-Phones Ready To Make Consumer Prints?" to its offerings, reports Technology Press World .

"Camera-phones are on the verge of delivering the snapshot capabilities that people currently expect from single-use film cameras and entry-level digital cameras. The recent release of two-megapixel camera-phones by all three Japanese wireless carriers raises the question: Why buy a digital camera?

The purpose of this 36-page study, including 119 figures, charts, and tables, is to determine if currently available camera-phones are capable of delivering acceptable consumer prints and to assess how the images produced measure up to those produced by the most popular standalone consumer cameras."

For an index of this report, click here.

UK Study Claims MMS Usage Rockets

Mike Grenville of 160characters.org reports that enpocket Mobile Media, Technology and Consulting Services, found soaring use of MMS as consumers upgrade to camera phones.

"Over the past 3 months, which includes the Christmas period, the number of consumers using MMS has surged by 40%. This is driven by 18-24 year olds of whom 37% are now using MMS.

The results are revealed in the Mobile Media Monitor, the latest quarterly survey of the sector from Enpocket, the mobile marketing solutions provider."

Can you dig it? Is a mobile picture worth a thousand words?

In an interesting article, it-analysis weighs the pricing issues facing operators in transmitting picture messaging over their network:

"The problem is, whilst it's easy to capture images, the cost of sharing them often outweighs the value. This creates a dilemma for operators. If they reduce the cost to send an image to make it really appealing, usage could spiral and the cost to their infrastructure could have an impact on their ability to deliver other services. The alternative is to keep the cost high, but that narrows the customer segment willing to spend more to share an image."

On Magazine: Phonecam anthropology, mobile photoblog roundup

Xeni Jardin for Ericsson's consumer magazine ON (PDF), interviews Mizuko Ito, an anthropologist researching phonecams and culture in Japan and the US (and, incidentally, Joi Ito's sister). In the following excerpts, Mizuko Ito explains what led her to focus on mobile technology and gives some new examples of camera phone usage:

Excerpts page 22 - PDF

XJ: What are some of the findings that have come from your studies of cameraphones in Japan?

MI: We asked people to record what they were doing with their cameraphones and asked them to share their photos. We found that there are clearly defined levels of intimacy. We don't tend to share images as freely with others as we do with text.

We also found that over time, people developed a heightened awareness of their visual environments. [...] We found people using images in ways they wouldn't have thought to before. One of my students phonecammed our lab director, who was leaving for the US. She wanted a picture of him on her mobile, to carry around like an amulet or good-luck charm.

Or, you have a meeting, and send an assistant out to buy sandwiches. She snaps a photo of the selelction at the deliy, and texts back - "Which one do you want?".

A student msises class, says' he sick, and the professor sends our another student to phonecam hi. The "sick" student appears in a phonecam image on the floor, completely out of it. The "proof" is faked, but does the job".

And on page 45, Xeni Jardin has picked out some of the hottest phonecam Web sites.

iMode vs. iMode : the difference between the East and the West

A very interesting and insightful post written by Anil de Mello from AdM Partners, on why i-Mode has not been more successful in the West.

One reason according to de Mello is that many of the latest services making it so successfull in Japan are not available for the European market. "At the DoCoMo stand at Telecom 2003, 2 year old Japanese handsets had been re-released as GSM devices and displayed as cutting edge euro phones. When I asked when they expected the next version of DoJa (DoCoMo's implementation of J2ME) would be released in Europe, the answer was, "well, the new features are not necessary for the international market".

It also appears that the answer lies in DoCoMo's own business strategy:

"i-mode has been phenomenally successful in Japan because it is remarkably convenient for users, employs powerful new technology, and relies on NTT DoCoMo's unique i-mode business model. Underlying this business model is an entirely new approach to the mobile service value chain and to the relationship between wireless service and the Internet.

NTT DoCoMo synchronizes the entire i-mode value chain, in order to develop ever-better mobile service for subscribers".

The state of Keitai

A very interesting post on anti-mega via Smart Mobs on the state of Keitai in Japan, "busting out with new features, bad, mad and crazy".

The whole article is a must-read with pictures illustrating some new fascinating features.

Excerpts:

"Japan led the introduction of camera phones (especially j-phone, now Vodafone). Resolution has now increased to over 1.3 megapixels (2mp is coming very soon). The flip format means some phones have two cameras, often at different resolutions, and also with different focus - the inside one is perfect for portraits, the outside good for landscapes. The latest cameras have proper auto-focus and high quality lenses. Image editing, storing, organizing and sending functionality is well developed.

For the late night picturetaker, several handsets offer a picture light (like a wimpy flash), and a few let you colour the light, rather like the Lomo Coloursplash.

There are some innovations in interaction as well. Sony have incorporated a signature scroll wheel into new phones, but other manufacturers have their own - 360° control is growing in popularity, with the wonderfully named Neuropointer, and the Roll Navi trackball.

One phone has a fingerprint reader for added security."

Another article recently published in The Guardian describes UK journalist Ashley Norris travels as part of a group visiting South Korea and consumer electronics company LG. How wide is the technological breach between the two countries? Way Wide.

A new survey conducted for Siemens reveals a lot of feminine interest in UMTS

Siemens commissioned the study of 3,000 people in France, Germany, and the UK, and found out that women's interest in several 3G services was higher than men's, reports TheFeature.com

"Research has shown that women send more SMS than men, and the study seems to point that will continue to hold true as users move to third-generation networks. This study found more interest among women in sending photos and videos, and a high level of interest in using handsets for e-mail as well".

Japanese Messaging - A World of Difference

Mike Grenville, founder of 160characters.org, brings insight via Pernille Rudin, into the Instat-MDR report on the Japanese market, claiming that text messaging (SMS) is declining in favor of Multi Media Messaging (MMS) and that the story published in FT, was missing the point.

"SMS has never been the all conquering success story in Japan that it has been in parts of Europe, so it would be wrong to interpret this report as suggesting that the popularity of text messaging in Europe is about to decline, now that more and more European subscribers have cameraphones.

First of all, SMS has only been available for communications between subscribers to the same operator network in Japan. For example, NTT DoCoMo offers Short Mail, which allows 50 Japanese characters per message, between NTT DoCoMo subscribers only.

No surprises then that Short Mail is not as popular as NTT DoCoMo's i-mode e-mail service (usually referred to as “Long Mail”), which allows users to send mail from anyone who has an i-mode mobile phone or Internet e-mail address (which includes people receiving internet e-mail on their mobiles who are with other operators).

Messages of up to 250 Japanese characters can be sent and up to 2000 Japanese characters received.

There is no evidence that this kind of e-mailing via mobile phones is declining in Japan.

And MMS has added rather than substituted for e-mails in this context".

American Teens: Stupid or Spoiled?

Douglas Rushkoff for TheFeature.com compares the factors motivating US and UK teenagers to replace their handsets.

The main reason in the UK according to Rushkoff is that local phone calls are expensive and access to the Internet is not as prevelent as in the US.

"It's not that American kids don't have cell phones. They do. It's just that they don't have the same need to use their phones for activities that are already being satisfied better elsewhere. After a couple of hours of free instant messaging on the computer every day after school, how much of an appetite could they possibly have for sms, photos or none, late into the night? "

Related articles previously posted on Textually.org:

-- Why Text Messaging is not popular in the US

-- Top Ten Uses For SMS in the US

Lack of Interoperability Hurting MMS in US

The lack of interoperability across major mobile network operators (MNOs), which have different technologies and varied business interests, is hampering the growth of the North American multimedia messaging services (MMS) markets.

“The market for MMS services is in its infancy today, hampered by the lack of applications, devices, and services,” says rost & Sullivan Industry Manager Kshitij Moghe. “However, phenomenal growth is expected within a timeframe of 18 months from now; somewhere in 2005, as market participants expedite their efforts to roll-out MMS and MMS-enabled handsets.” [Frost & Sullivan] via [Moco News].

Update 06.10.03 cf MMS interoperability in the USA to improve .

Competition Between Camera Mobile Phones, Digital Cameras Becomes More Fierce

"A survey conducted by Nikkei BP Consulting Inc found that many users expect camera mobile phones to have performances and capabilities as high as those of digital cameras.

Thus market observers expect that competition between camera mobile phones and digital cameras will be much more fierce. In fact, the number of units of mobile phones with a built-in camera produced is growing much faster than that of digital cameras.

The survey also showed that users take an average of 4.7 pictures per week using a built-in camera mobile phone. The higher the resolution camera phones they have, the more picture they take, the survey said. Users of a camera mobile phone with 300,000 pixels take pictures twice as much as users of a phone with less than 100,000 pixels". [NE Asia].

See graphs 1, 2, 3.

Survey: Younger People Feel Less Guilty of 'Digital Shoplifting

Young users of mobile phones with a built-in digital camera feel less guilty of "shoplifting" digital content using such devices, according to survey results published on Sept 5 by Nepro Japan, reports NE Asia Online.

"The survey found that 60% of the respondents said they think "digital shoplifting" is immoral. A total of 26% responded that they think it is a crime and 14% said it is permissible.

Asked about what kind of images they have taken from books or magazines, or are thinking about or have thought of taking using a built-in camera phone, 14% said they want to take photos of a recipe, 13% said information on restaurants, and 10% said hair styles and fashions".

Digital shoplifting is becoming a big problem as camera-equipped mobile handsets are spreading fast and their quality is improving greatly. cf Digital shoplifiting in Japan, a growing concern for publishers.

According to Nepro Japan, "digital shoplifters often target magazines that offer informative content. "Digital shoplifting is an issue created by the emergence of mobile phones with a built-in camera and other digital information devices. It is very similar to issues related to file exchange software provided by Napster Inc of the United States. To solve such kind of problems, we will have to depend on the conscience of end users."

Skipping Text; Going Straight to Multimedia Messaging

Steve Outing in E-Media Tidbits reports on an article in The Financial Times, about how the U.S. is so far behind Europe on adopting cell-phone text messaging that it may never catch on in a big way, as it's done in the last couple years in other parts of the world.

While acknowledging that Americans are belatedly making "texting" use popular at last, the writers predict that the U.S. market will likely move quickly to multimedia messaging. Picture messaging is likely to be the next big thing before texting has a chance to take off.

A glimpse of cell phone future in Korea

This article published in Yahoo News Korea, explores how camera phones are already a part of daily South Korean life. They are so prevelant that it's not unusual to see someone snapping a picture in the street and to protect their trade secrets, high tech companies are no longer allowing them on their premises.

More than four million camera-equipped phones have been sold over the past year (last year's total worldwide sales were just 14 million) and the latest phones offer not only communications but also video camera functions, MP3, access to the Internet and live television shows as well as settlements of transactions.

"A mobile phone can even show you how to get to your destination, for example, the closest gas station or whatever," said Lee Sang-chul, a 37-year-old businessman who pays an average $200 in mobile phone charges a month. "There are so many cool functions. It's part of my life."

Moon Ae-ran, a 50-year-old homemaker living in an upmarket apartment complex in the southern Seoul, also enjoys the convenience of her high-tech device. She can turn on a washing machine and other home appliances with her mobile phone even when she is out shopping. "How can I live without this thing?" Moon said.

Are Nokia's mobile devices being pushed on to us, or is demand being driven by us?

Business Report questions whether mobile devices are being pushed on to us, or are we the ones driving the demand.

According to initial market research in Japan, where it has been tested with the J-Power mobile operator, there seems to be a genuine demand for mobile imaging and messaging.

The article finishes off by saying "it is great business sense for Nokia and wireless carriers, as offering MMS should entail significant unexploited revenue potential for operators". And for the consumer, well, it's about being enticed into spending more money.

Another interesting point in this article is Nokia's perception of itself, which is not about making phone calls. "Voice, the company says, just happens to be one feature of a mobile device and just happened to be the first feature adopted for the cellphones". The real revolution will be MMS and video.

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

Photo Messaging Study

Photo messaging has found strong awareness among global mobile phone users and appears to be the first breakout capability of next generation multi-media messaging services (MMS), according to the latest Mobinet study (via Cellular News), of 5,600 mobile phone users in 15 countries conducted regularly by global management consulting firm A. T. Kearney and the Judge Institute of Management, Cambridge University's business school. Click here for full pdf report.