There have been questions whether or not consumers are using MMS
to send photos and video. With billions being sent and numbers climbing,
the questions seem to have been answered.

Multimedia messaging service (MMS) has been slow catching on as a way of sending photos and even video with a handset. Some accounts have deemed it a failure. But use of the application has grown dramatically in the past year, both by consumers and even by businesses.

Nielsen Mobile (formerly Telephia) says just 19% of U.S. wireless subscribers signed up for MMS plans in the second quarter of 2006. But, the research group says that penetration has grown to 41% by the end of June 2007. That’s an increase from 42 million to 97 million.

Kanishka Agarwal, Nielsen’s mobile media vice president, says those numbers are a little deceiving because they don’t relate to actual use of MMS, just subscribers with a plan that includes MMS. Agarwal has a messaging plan that includes MMS as part of a bundle, although he doesn’t use the capability.

Still, Agarwal says, he believes MMS usage still has risen dramatically. Part of that is because carriers that bundle MMS make it more accessible to a wider number of subscribers.

Three other factors come into play. One is the wide number of cameraphones now that support MMS. Another is that most carriers now have established interoperability so multimedia can be sent from one network to another (this isn’t true internationally, though.) And finally, the young audience that is most inclined to want photos and video is growing.

THE MOBILE GENERATION
“The younger generation, the truly mobile generation, is certainly much more multimedia savvy, so attaching images is compelling,” says Agarwal. “So there is a fundamental shift in the consumer need for plain old text. That bodes well for MMS.”

Figures from M:Metrics bear that out. The analyst group says during the three months ending in August, 36% of those aged 18 to 24 sent an MMS, with 26.9% of the 25 to 35 age group, and 27.2% of those aged 13 to 17.

Gartner Research Director Tole Hart, who thinks most of the interoperability issues have been resolved, is forecasting there will 20 billion MMS messages sent in 2011. That compares to numbers from the CTIA that 2.7 billion MMS messages were sent in 2006 and 1.1 billion in 2005.

Hart attributes MMS’ growth to interoperability, bundled SMS/MMS packages, widespread handset support and a lower general price for individual MMS messages, in the 25-cent range.

MMS isn’t just a consumer tool. It’s being used by businesses to communicate with consumers, on an opt-in basis. A number of entries in this year Mobile Marketing Association awards program showed how MMS could be used to send video and other content as part of an advertising or marketing campaign.

One company founded on that premise is Tapioca Mobile of San Diego, which plans to use MMS as a way of connecting brands with consumers. Tapioca just announced its first financing, including the venture capital firm Venrock.

“The astounding rise in the use of mobile messaging rivals the adoption of the Internet a decade ago,” according to David Siminoff a Venrock general partner. “Tapioca stands at the intersection of mobile messaging and the power of rich media giving media companies and advertisers a tremendous opportunity to reach consumers and develop multimedia communities.”

CONTINUING GROWTH
Sybase 365, one of the leaders in MMS message delivery, says the number of MMS messages it has processed in the United States has increased for 11 consecutive quarters at a month-over-month average rate of 7.4%.

MMS is the fastest-growing product that Sybase has, says President Marty Beard. Sybase recently announced a new multimedia content delivery gateway called MMS 365 to send and receive MMS from multiple sources. The product targets content providers, marketers and media companies.

“If the growth (in MMS) we’re seeing shows the success of interoperability, it has been phenomenal,” Beard says. “We’re seeing upwards of 80% growth annually. There’s no evidence it will slow down.”

William Dudley, senior director of messaging products for Sybase 365, says there is more than 90% MMS interoperability among U.S. operators, including Tier 1 and 2 operators. The company established interoperability between Verizon Wireless and AT&T (then Cingular) in 2005.

Dudley says the U.S. MMS market is second only to China globally, with Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile USA all in the top five or six MMS operators in the world.

Virtually every handset manufactured now is MMS-capable; even if it doesn’t have a camera, it still can receive an MMS, Dudley says. There remain about 40% of handsets in use globally that don’t support MMS, but that number will decline as phones are replaced. Plus, Dudley says, handset manufacturers are making it easier to use MMS.

Beard says enterprises are starting to see MMS as a tool to deliver content both to consumers and employees.

Does all this mean that MMS has clear sailing? Not necessarily, as was shown by this fall’s launch of the British MVNO Blyk. The ad-supported network hadn’t been operating very long before there was a glitch that prevented MMS messages being sent to other U.K. networks. That kind of black eye will dampen consumer enthusiasm, but if those problems are solved quickly and only affect small numbers, the future should be bright.