Mobile working Toolkit

Texting's successor fails Asian adoption test

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Winston Chai CNETAsia

Published: 05 Jan 2004 10:35 GMT

Despite a projected user boom this year, Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) are still years away from becoming mainstream in Asia, says market analyst International Data Corporation.

MMS, the much-touted successor to conventional text messaging, allows messages containing video, audio, pictures and animation to be exchanged between compatible mobile handsets.

According to the firm’s latest report, the number of MMS users in Asia-Pacific is expected to grow by more than 50 percent in 2004. In spite of this increase, IDC said the service is still far from becoming commonplace and that it will constitute a mere fraction of the mobile user base in the region.

"MMS users will represent only 2.3 per cent of total wireless subscribers by the end of 2003 and 4.3 per cent by the end of 2004," said Davina Yeo, IDC Asia-Pacific’s associate director for wireless research. "While the number of MMS users continues to expand each quarter, it will take another two years for MMS technology to gain mass appeal."

She pointed to the pricing of services and handsets, interoperability and roaming issues as continued hurdles to broader adoption.

Yeo stressed these kinks are especially pertinent in the developing parts of Asia but MMS uptake will be greater in mature telecommunications markets like Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

This is due to the higher penetration of camera-equipped handsets in developed Asian countries and early progress in achieving MMS interoperability, she said.

"So far, the usage of MMS has been largely confined to user-created content such as digital images taken on camera-enabled handsets. IDC believes that the opportunity for MMS will be further enhanced if there is more third-party content that extends beyond picture-taking via the mobile device," said Yeo.

"The content and services can range from anything from virtual dating, audio or video previews, sports clips, street directory services and email delivery," she told CNETAsia.