Seriously, why no MMS?...

[t0mat0]

MSS is still widely used and I seeing it kick off more and more and yet the iPhone what is supposed to be one of the most advace phones lacks this basic feature...

Email has other huge problems. It goes big time for people who do not have unlimited media. It takes more time and limited amount of data to get the email. Top that off it would pull all the email ones gotten. Not just the MMS they wanted.

I think the argument people keep using is pretty weak at best.
<snip>
I am 25 and I think in the pass few months I have recieved 5 or 6 MMS to my phone which Sony phone I bought after college. Mind you I have sent only 2 in the pass year and that was because i needed a quite opinion about something from my younger sister (and all but one of thsoe messages I recieved happen to be from my younger sister who still in HS. The other was a drunk MMS from my brother. I know for a fact my sister used MMS quite a bit and it bother her for the short time span she could not use it.

Heck I have even seen my mom start using them....

I hear having a floppy drive is a basic feature. Or multiple ports. So I was shocked to see Apple has been doing the same "drop the unnecessary feature" trick on the MacBook Air...

In terms of email, you could get the picture to resize before sending as an email. Last I checked you could browse your new unopened emails without opening them and downloading the contents of every single one.

As for your sending of MMS rates: 1 every 6 months.
Quick question - you've received 6 MMS in the past few months. So that's at most 3 every 30-31 days. So on average that's 1 every 10 days.
Could you tell us, on average, how many emails you received as a ballpark figure, (not including spam) in the last 2 months? And how many of those had attachments?

That's what Apple is talking about. Show me a person who get's more MMS than email, and i'll show you someone who needs a digital camera

Maybe your sister would be a good example of a profile of a regular user of an MMSer - it'd be interesting to see how she uses it, and why.

 

[netdog]

It is odd that they haven't included it, regardless of how infrequently one might use this feature.

That said, it's no biggie.

 

[kloppenator]

if yall want it, tell apple!!!

apple.com/feedback

seriously folks. strength in numbers! if everyone just sends one about MMS... or password keychain, or flash, or whatever it is you want, we may get it. If their inbox is completely flooded with requests for it, they may say "okay!!!"

 

[iEdd]

It's not happening. The same reason the iPhone doesn't have a keyboard or other useless gimmicks. MMS is pointless and if you disagree, buy some POS "smartphone" instead.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

I hear having a floppy drive is a basic feature. Or multiple ports. So I was shocked to see Apple has been doing the same "drop the unnecessary feature" trick on the MacBook Air...

In terms of email, you could get the picture to resize before sending as an email. Last I checked you could browse your new unopened emails without opening them and downloading the contents of every single one.

As for your sending of MMS rates: 1 every 6 months.
Quick question - you've received 6 MMS in the past few months. So that's at most 3 every 30-31 days. So on average that's 1 every 10 days.
Could you tell us, on average, how many emails you received as a ballpark figure, (not including spam) in the last 2 months? And how many of those had attachments?

That's what Apple is talking about. Show me a person who get's more MMS than email, and i'll show you someone who needs a digital camera

Maybe your sister would be a good example of a profile of a regular user of an MMSer - it'd be interesting to see how she uses it, and why.

about 4-5 a day.


The phone with email has to still download the headers which includes spam. It takes longer and more time and more of the limited data. You still have to log into email (time and data right there), then pulled the headers (more time and data) from there you can finally get the MMS message. Lets compared that to MMS..... Check text messages and it already there. It was faster than step 3 of that list above and took less data to boot.....

Btw you argument does not make any sense. When apple dropped the floppy drive it was not widely used any more. While it was a standard piece of hardware hardly any one used it at that point time in any more.

Lastly I pointed out my MMS rate which are low. I was more pointing out my sisters which is quite a bit higher. Where it works out to be 5-10 a month for her a lone.

 

[fishkorp]

Personally, I don't know a single person over the age of 14 that uses MMS. That's not the demographic that Apple is trying to cater to with the iPhone (from the looks of the features). However, my gut is telling me the lack of MMS, even with 2.0 software, is for Apple to try to convince everyone to subscribe to MobileMe service. "Why send MMS messages when you can just push pictures to everyone...well...everyone with an iPhone and MobileMe that is!"

There are ways of making SwirlyMMS work with AT&T now, so if the Swirly folks get an SDK app out, and it passed the approval process, there's your MMS

 

[Bern]

I'm over the age of 14 and I use MMS often to send images taken with my phone. It's cheaper than accessing email on my mobile.

 

[anti-microsoft]

It's kinda like when everyone was still using floppy disks and all I had was a cd burner

Exactly! That's the best comparison you could ever give!

I'm over the age of 14 and I use MMS often to send images taken with my phone. It's cheaper than accessing email on my mobile.

That's because you don't have the free Data Plan that you get with the purchase of an iPhone. The Point I'm making is that if you've got email you don't need MMS.
I think that's how most people react.

 

[hwojtek]

The Point I'm making is that if you've got email you don't need MMS.

Does this logic also cover the "if you got <Safari> on the iPhone, you don't need to have a bluetooth modem functionality in order to use your iPhone as a modem and browse the web from your Apple notebook" attitude?

Was the BT modem feature cut out because iPhone has a "browser"... of sorts? Because if I followed your logic correctly, this is the case?

And lack of basic movie shooting with the iPhone, is it because I can go to a store and buy myself a video camera? No copy/paste because there are some people who can remember long chains of numbers they saw on a webpage and are able to reproduce it when composing a text message?

MMS was created as a service for interchanging multimedia between mobile phones. Lack of MMS functionality makes the iPhone quite a crippled mobile phone indeed. Sure, it has a plethora of other impressive stuff inside, but using an iPhone and not being able to receive a standard multimedia message... it's just ridiculous.

Just FYI: I've backordered the 3G iPhone a few minutes ago, but the lack of MMS just pisses me off...

 

[JoJoCal19]

The argument that MMS is outdated is just plain lame. So is the argument that email is better than MMS.

If MMS is outdate then so is SMS. And last time I checked everyone I know talks to people through SMS alot.

SMS was created as a quick and easy way to tell someone something rather than calling. MMS was created as a quick and easy way to send someone a pic or video rather than emailing it.

MMS is much quicker and easier to use than dealing with email, which yes comes with spam and other emails you have to sort through.

My fiancee is a pastry chef and she sends me lots of pictures of her work. People who have families and kids send pics to each other. While a husband is at work the wife can snap a quick pic of the kids and send it to her husband. It happens everyday.

And I am willing to bet that if you did a poll of all cell phone users the number would be more people use it or have used it than not.

And REGARDLESS of the fact whether you use it or not, the fact is that its SAD that the iPhone doesnt even have the ability.

That being said as a former 8GB iPhone user, I am still tempted to get the new 3G iPhone because its that good, but rest assured, I will not drink the Kool Aid and think that the iPhone is PERFECT, because its not.

 

[Xtgirl]

I don't mind not having MMS at all EXCEPT those stupid multimedia messages....can they make those passwords/UserId's any harder to type in on a phone...geez

Sending is no issue, but I hate receiving..I usually just give up and never look at things people send.

 

[bombboy]

My fiancee is a pastry chef and she sends me lots of pictures of her work. People who have families and kids send pics to each other. While a husband is at work the wife can snap a quick pic of the kids and send it to her husband. It happens everyday.

Your fiancee and that wife should consider getting a digital camera and then sending a bunch of photos at once via e-mail...

 

[hwojtek]

This is quite a bright idea, but I am pretty sure a $199 digital camera doesn't have email capabilities.
And besides, while most kitchens are in cell network range, they're not in wifi range. Your argumentation only adds another proof for "MMS is actually a good thing to have".
Oh, and MMS does sound recordings, too...

 

[t0mat0]

This is quite a bright idea, but I am pretty sure a $199 digital camera doesn't have email capabilities.
And besides, while most kitchens are in cell network range, they're not in wifi range. Your argumentation only adds another proof for "MMS is actually a good thing to have".
Oh, and MMS does sound recordings, too...

My friend's parrot does sound recordings. Hopeless with the camera though

Push email, contacts, calendar - But I want MMS!
3g, HSDPA speeds - But I want MMS!
Enterprise level support - But I want MMS!
App Store opening - But I want MMS!
Better battery life - But I want MMS!
Possible upgrades to the camera software/hardware - But I want MMS!
Full internet (bar icky Flash) - But I want MMS!
BTOpenzone, The Cloud, London wifi mesh - But I want MMS!
Geotagging of photos - But I want MMS!
Probable video support - But I want MMS!
Syncing of large files over 10Mb with iDisk - But I want MMS!

MMS may/won't/might sometime come. But it ain't the most needed feature. Partly because there'll be a lot more iPhones around come the end of July

 

[gloss]

Oh, and MMS does sound recordings, too...

Is that at all similar to voicemail?

 

[JoJoCal19]

My friend's parrot does sound recordings. Hopeless with the camera though

Push email, contacts, calendar - But I want MMS!
3g, HSDPA speeds - But I want MMS!
Enterprise level support - But I want MMS!
App Store opening - But I want MMS!
Better battery life - But I want MMS!
Possible upgrades to the camera software/hardware - But I want MMS!
Full internet (bar icky Flash) - But I want MMS!
BTOpenzone, The Cloud, London wifi mesh - But I want MMS!
Geotagging of photos - But I want MMS!
Probable video support - But I want MMS!
Syncing of large files over 10Mb with iDisk - But I want MMS!

MMS may/won't/might sometime come. But it ain't the most needed feature. Partly because there'll be a lot more iPhones around come the end of July

Like I said before, even lacking MMS the new 3G iPhone is still the best overall phone out there and I will probably get it, but it doesnt excuse the lack of a basic feature such as MMS.

And yes while there will be more iPhones out there, iPhones represent a really small share of the overall cell market so basically the iPhone just cut of some of its interactibility with the rest of the cell phone market (MMS).

And yes bombboy you can do that, but its not practical. Its much easier to snap a quick photo with your camera and send it, all in 20 seconds. That IS why MMS was created in the first place.

 

[bombboy]

This is quite a bright idea, but I am pretty sure a $199 digital camera doesn't have email capabilities.
And besides, while most kitchens are in cell network range, they're not in wifi range. Your argumentation only adds another proof for "MMS is actually a good thing to have".
Oh, and MMS does sound recordings, too...

Way to be a stickler but why not consider going home, connecting the camera to the PC/Mac at home and using that. Or why not everybody just get an iPhone and take pictures with that and e-mail them? That's what has begun to happen in my circle, multiple friends with e-mail capable phones sending pictures via e-mail.

 

[hwojtek]

Because the "mobile" part of "mobile phone" is not about the user taking a photo, gettin' on a fracking bus home, uploading the photo to a computer, e-mailing it to someone who might just be miles away from the nearest computer to check his/her e-mail, but about the device itself and it's capabilities.

There are thousands of iPhones that are able to send an e-mail, that's for sure. But there are millions of mobile phones well capable of receiving an MMS, but not e-mail enabled. It's about interoperability with the standards. The "if iPhone ain't got MMS then MMS is bad" attitude is just plain silly. It should have everything that you can have in an $199 phone and a truckload more. It now has a truckload more, but lacks features from a $9.99 phone.

The MMS sound capability (actually, MMS standard allows sending any file as an attachment) is quite useful as well. Quite often used in Europe for buying ringtones. Oh, now that's something that really scares Apple, isn't it?

Or why not everybody just get an iPhone and take pictures with that and e-mail them?

Ooooh, you must be kiddin'. Seriously.

 

[The General]

They need to just integrate MMS with the text messages so it would be like Direct Connection chat in iChat. Pictures show up in bubbles. Put a little blue button next to it, or just tap right on the picture to get some options such as saving, or emailing, etc. Or if it's a sound file, show the filename just like iChat file transfer. Tap the file button to play with the QuickTime plugin.

I wish they'd just add it, or copy/paste. I'm tired of memorizing hexadecimal message IDs and passwords so I can view the picture in Safari. I've only gotten like 10 in the past year, but I imagine I'd use it more if it was something the iPhone could do. Email works, but not all my friends have email on their phones.

 

[DreamPod]

I like how lots of people say "just use email" - but you know, most people don't have smart phones or communicator phones. Most phones real people buy have cameras and MMS but no email support, and they take those phones everywhere with them. If they see something cool, it only takes a few seconds to snap a pic and send it to a friend via MMS, and for a normal phone, receiving an MMS is just like a normal text message - you get a noise and an alert, you press one button, and instantly see the picture. Email takes WAY more effort, especially if you don't have push-mail. Isn't that the opposite idea of the iPhone - to make everything easier, fewer screens and button-presses?

And for those comparing MMS to the floppy drive, the big difference is, MMS is what everybody else uses to communicate with you - floppy disks at the time of the iMac had little to do with anybody else, they were primarily for your own use, so if your own computer didn't have them, it wasn't a big deal. As well, a floppy drive was a hardware decision, which directly affected the cost of the computer, but MMS is purely software, and wouldn't cost anything at all for Apple to implement, except a few man-hours programming it.

 

[Nykwil]

if an iphone user is smart enough to have an iphone and use email then he should take into consideration making special mms emails of all their old dated technology using friends so they can easily email them an mms.

Frankly im glad to see mms not included on the iphone. I hate it. Someone sends me an mms ill yell at em and remind them if they need to send me an mms just to email it to me via the outgoing box...it's very easy to do. When i get an MMS it's always sized down to the point of not making anything out...especially through the viewmymessage.com.

I'd rather take the extra step to remind my friends who feel they need to use such ancient forms of picture communications just to send the mms direct to my email. All phones can do that at least.

But ya know...we all know how it's going to work out...MMS gets implemented into a appstore app and then someone's just gunna move right along and bitch about copy paste or the OVERWHELMING LIFE OR DEATH NEED for vidoe conferencing on the fly in some remote ass location or on the subway.

 

[Inconsequential]

Not one of my mates have email on their phone.

Not one.

Therefore that point is NOT valid.

Although to be fair i've received 10 MMS Pictures during the last 18 months...

*shrug*

Should have added it tbh. Bit poor on apple side there.

 

[Nykwil]

Not one of my mates have email on their phone.

Not one.

Therefore that point is NOT valid.

Although to be fair i've received 10 MMS Pictures during the last 18 months...

*shrug*

Should have added it tbh. Bit poor on apple side there.

Every phone in the us has an email that goes direct to their sms

10digitnumber@provider.net is usually the format all phones follow depending in their provider.

 

[BongoBanger]

Way to be a stickler but why not consider going home, connecting the camera to the PC/Mac at home and using that. Or why not everybody just get an iPhone and take pictures with that and e-mail them? That's what has begun to happen in my circle, multiple friends with e-mail capable phones sending pictures via e-mail.

Good for you. The rest of us use MMS that can be sent to any phone that can receive it, regardless of brand. And that besides the fact most of us have e-mail enabled phones.

 

[friekunater]

yeah I can easily SMS and MMS on my 16gb non-jailbroken iPod touch... like Goku said, each phone has 1 or 2 email addresses. one for SMS and the phones that support MMS have an address for that too. for example, if I have a friend on Verizon who I want to send SMS to and their number is 1-815-867-5309, I would send a text message through email to 8158675309@VTEXT.com and for MMS I would send it to 8158675309@vzwpix.com

you can send and recieve text and multimedia for free using just Internet! I love it!