MMS and SMS are legacy. They're ancient, and not the way forward. That SMS exists on the iPhone is a way bring iChat to the phone while making the AOL/AIM gateway do the work rather than the client.
In 1998 we got an iMac that had no SCSI and no serial ports. Compaq followed suit by ditching serial as well. Now it's hard to find a modern machine that has serial.
Apple is driving the phone service providers and the handset providers forward, just as they dragged the computer manufacturers forward. It hasn't been wholly successful (most PCs don't come with firewire) but it's what Apple does, whether it's visual voicemail, or ditching the old and broken limited MMS system for something more powerful.
It just means that you'll have to wait for Moto/Nokia/LG/etc. to catch up and join the future.
There's a huge difference between dropping a legacy device that is being replaced and simply leaving out functionality without replacing it. When Apple dropped the floppy, there were other storage options. Then Apple cut back on Firewire, there was already a trend to USB 2. Leaving out MMS (unless it is, in fact, replaced with something better) is leaving out an actual normal function--like putting out a word processor and leaving out cut and paste. Or leaving out the floppy if the only other method of storage were old magnetic tapes rather than the plethora of solutions (CD, USB flash, .mac) that we actually have.
It doesn't have to be specifically the MMS protocol, and I'm all for Apple dropping the old protocols in favor of something new and better, but it seems to me that if there's no way to easily send a picture to another phone, it's a glaring omission. If Apple cuts out MMS, there still should be an efficient way to send pictures to another phone. If it's a mini form of iChat AV, great, yay, that would be fantastic. People are going to want it. Sign me up! (but why would you need SMS?) If there's just...nothing, I have to consider keeping my current phone and separate iPod.
Now, having said that, if enough people had smartphones and routinely picked up their email that way, I agree that your argument would be better--and Apple would have bagged SMS as well. And that may be the trend in the next decade or so, but right now smartphones in the US have very small market penetration. Also, even with email on a smartphone (and I've owned 2, the Treo and t-mobile SDA) it's much easier, faster, and more fun to message directly.
I strongly suspect Apple knows this, and will give us some way to perform this function with the iPhone, but not MMS (if the manual is correct). We'll see.
We will just have to wait until the 29th.
