[cluhn]

Thanks for the suggestion. But, I see no reason to switch from my Verizon/BlackBerry/Bluetooth getup -- that, however disappointing and lacking it is, still works -- and paying the penalties that would entail, until the iPhone has native apps rather than forcing me to cobb together half-baked solutions.

[gibarian]

First, does anyone actually doubt Apples engineers couldn't create an MMS application? The fault lies with AT&T.

MMS and SMS have very different cost requirements. It is no surprise AT&T would balk at adding MMS service.

A SMS is sent on the control frequency used by the phone in a very specific frequency. The handset is basically always talking to the tower: you can kind of think about control messages as something like an http header message--then the part of the information packet is then sent in. There is a little more room in the control frequency to carry a text message along--so it does.

Bottom line: because the control frequency is always in contact with the phone already, the actual cost of sending an SMS along with the message is virtually nothing. These messages are very short: 150 2-byte characters. Actually, all the text messages sent in the US in a day could fit on the hard drive in my macbook. The only cost is the land wiring--but again, these messages are very very very small.

Now consider an MMS: It has to go through the regular edge or 3G frequency. This DOES use some of AT&T's limited spectrum (and as the poor 3G service to date indicates, very limited indeed). AT&T has been constantly trying to move phone users to wifi networks--largely because it does not like providing data service.

Well, the amount of data service for MMS is not so great--except when you consider the pricing structure.

We've seen SMS prices from 2005-2008 double from 10 cents to 20 cents--uniform among all the carriers. Most people have a plan, bringing down the prices of SMS to just pennies. This might be good for the consumer--until you realize that the number of text messages sent annually (and hence, the number of sms plans sold) has gone up. In short, the revenue has grown phenomenally whereas the costs have not grown at all for AT&T. Quite good business.

With MMS, AT&T would see its costs increase, unlike SMS. We might think about data plans as being extravagently generous--unlimited free internet all the time. What most don't realize is this is one way: it costs more to AT&T to upload a file from a handset than to send it to one from a tower--just like uploading a file takes more time on a home internet connection. With the iPhone's candy color interface, the temptation to do MMS service will be strong.

So, the only way to sell MMS to the public would be to include it in the text messaging plan or the data messaging plan. Can you really imagine AT&T including yet another plan on top of the voice, sms, and data plans they already have on the iPhone--customers would balk, as well they should.

The tide couldn't be held back forever. So, with third party MMS apps (have you noticed how you have to pay for these?) AT&T is able to limit the amount of MMS sent because not everyone has the apps or even knows what MMS is. The whole process also bought AT&T time to unroll their 3G network, which is still....well AT&T's 3G network.

Oh well, maybe someone will read this among the 61 comments.

[mortsmo]

Your cost argument re: MMS doesn't make sense as all other phones and smart phones that at&t sells has MMS capabilities.