The mobile messaging market has come a long way since the advent of SMS over ten years ago. Since then we have had advanced SMS in the form of Smart Messaging (like EMS) and we now see the next phase in mobile data services; Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).
MMS messages can be sent not only from phone to phone, but also from phone to email and vice versa. When sending an SMS, the main method for message addressing is using phone numbers (i.e. numeric addressing), but MMS also provides the capability of email addressing (alphanumeric addressing).
MMS can be thought of as a highly developed extension of SMS and therefore is easy for current mobile phone users to adapt to. Each message is a multimedia presentation in a single entry rather than a text file with attachments, and it is therefore a simple and user friendly method of sending messages containing multimedia content. ]
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) - sometimes called Multimedia Messaging System - is a communications technology developed by 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) that allows users to exchange multimedia communications between capable mobile phones and other devices. An extension to the Short Message Service protocol, MMS defines a way to send and receive, almost instantaneously, wireless messages that include images, audio, and video clips in addition to text. When the technology has been fully developed, it will support the transmission of streaming video. A common current application of MMS
messaging is picture messaging (the use of camera phones to take photos for immediate delivery to a mobile recipient). Other possibilities include animations and graphic presentations of stock quotes, sports news, and weather reports.According to Mobile Streams, MMS will be developed in two separate phases. Based on General Packet Radio Services, the currently available MMS is similar to a brief PowerPoint presentation. The second phase of MMS will require a 3G network to enable streaming video. An intermediate technology, Enhanced Messaging Service has more capabilities than SMS, but fewer than MMS. Unlike MMS, EMS doesn't require upgrades to network infrastructures. Unlike SMS and EMS, the size of an MMS message is unlimited, although service providers are likely to impose their own size restrictions.
