Cingular Wireless L.L.C. launched its Multimedia Messaging service, allowing customers to attach photos, text, graphics, music, video and voice to traditional text messages, and according to the carrier, send them to virtually any e-mail address or multimedia messaging service-capable mobile phone.
“One of the beauties of the service is that it works even if you’re not sure if the person receiving has an MMS-capable phone,” explained Marc Lefar, chief marketing officer for Cingular. “If they don’t, they’ll get a text message explaining that they have a MMS message-complete with music, picture, video and voice-waiting for them online. It can be viewed from any computer with Internet access.”
Until Jan. 11, Cingular said it will offer unlimited MMS messaging for $3 per month, and after that date, customers will have a trio of pricing options, including 25 cents per message sent with no monthly charge, $3 per month for 20 messages and 25 cents for each additional message sent, or $5 per month for 40 messages and 20 cents per additional message sent.
Cingular added that customers will not be charged a roaming fee for using the MMS service when on another U.S. carrier’s GSM network.
Cingular’s MMS service launch should be appealing to consumers, according to a recent survey conducted by IDC that found 44 percent of worldwide respondents planning to purchase a camera phone in the next six months said they would be willing to pay more than $21 per month in addition to their regular cellular services to be able to send and receive images from their wireless devices.
IDC noted that while willingness to spend extra for the service was encouraging, carriers need to make sure consumers have a positive experience with the service if they want to continue to drive revenues.
“Everyone wants to grow their revenue streams, but if prices are high and subscribers aren’t compelled by the offerings-either service or hardware-they’ll quickly lose interest,” said Chris Chute, senior analyst of digital imaging solutions and services at IDC.
IDC added that it expects the number of camera phones shipped worldwide to jump from 19 million last year to 298 million by 2007.
