Three-quarters of UK mobile users are excited by the potential of multimedia messaging services, according to a new survey from Nokia.
The study, conducted in co-operation with the HPI Research Group, sought to evaluate people’s perceptions of MMS in six prominent markets, namely the UK, Japan, the US, Germany, Singapore and Finland.
MMS services are already well established in the Far East and the Japanese model is a useful benchmark for analysts looking to assess prospects in the wider world. The report claims that amongst Japanese respondents, over 90% of camera phone owners send multimedia messages to other camera phones, compared to just 68% who send to email accounts.
Global sales of camera phones reached 18 million last year and with shipments expected to double in 2003, there should be a knock-on effect for MMS.
Nokia found that multimedia phone users in Japan have increased their use of traditional mobile services since upgrading their handset and expect to receive responses to the multimedia messages they send. There is also demand for richer content services, that will be based on the 3G standard.
In the UK, where approximately 75% of respondents said they regarded MMS as exciting, there is considerable interest in downloadable picture-based services. There is growing speculation that MMS will provide stern competition for television and the internet when it comes to supplying specific services, such as news, weather and travel information. In its Winter 2003 Mobile Phone Report, Continental Research stated that one in five UK mobile users will soon have handsets capable of receiving multimedia messages.
Overall, Nokia is confident that MMS will build on the success of SMS, with customers benefiting from a raft of new services and generating much needed revenues for operators.
“Consumers really want MMS and, as operators are already discovering, people are as intrigued by and eager to use MMS as SMS,” said Pekka Pohjakallio, Director, Mobile Internet Solutions at Nokia Networks. “What’s really interesting is how MMS looks set to broaden mobile communications use as a whole and support the creation of new kinds of picture content services.”
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