iPhone to Get MMS... In Sweden... Maybe...

[Vincent Ferrari]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/18/mms-capabilities-coming-soon-to-a-swedish-iphone/' target='_blank'>http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/18/...swedish-iphone/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"The oft-bemoaned lack of certain, um... capabilities of the the iPhone is forcing individual companies to take desperate measures, it seems. It's not entirely clear, but MacWorld says it's confirmed with Telia that the Swedish-Finnish carrier's developing an MMS-enabling app for the iPhone. MacWorld says the app will hit the market in the next two months, which is great news for everyone in Sweden."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1227067605.usr18053.jpg" /></p><p>Honestly, I'm not terribly worried about if the iPhone will ever get MMS capabilities.&nbsp; I've had my fair share of phones that had the feature over the years and I don't think I've ever actually used it.&nbsp; It's just not that important to me, but nonetheless there are a vocal group of folks who think the inability to not send a picture of yourself to some girl your flirting with is utterly a dealbreaker so for them this may be the final push they need to buy the iPhone.&nbsp; Your mileage may vary.&nbsp; If you live in Sweden.&nbsp; Maybe.</p>

[ucfgrad93]

Honestly, I'm not terribly worried about if the iPhone will ever get MMS capabilities.

Like you, I don't really care about MMS. However, it does seem like an unusual omission for the iPhone, if only because everyone expects it to be there.

[Vincent Ferrari]

Like you, I don't really care about MMS. However, it does seem like an unusual omission for the iPhone, if only because everyone expects it to be there.

Unusual? That's a good word for it.

The one feature the iPhone really needs is syncing of notes. Without it, the Notes app is useless. You'd think people would be more concerned with a huge functional deficit like that than some silly gee-whiz thing like MMS especially when you have e-mail built in anyway.

[Dyvim]

You'd think people would be more concerned with a huge functional deficit like that than some silly gee-whiz thing like MMS especially when you have e-mail built in anyway.
Ok, you can make the case that the iPhone has no need to send MMS when it has email instead (although you can also make the case that the iPhone does need it so that you can send pics to people with dumb phones but no email), but please don't try to tell me that the iPhone has no need to be able to receive and display MMS messages. Don't assume that just because no one sends you MMS pictures that this is the case for all iPhone users. When my nanny snaps a pic of my son on her dumb phone and sends me the pic, I'd like to be able to see it on my iPhone as soon as it arrives. Instead I get a text SMS with a link to an AT&T website and a long complex password (which I can't even cut & paste on the iPhone, but that's another story) that I need to enter into that site.

Honestly if every modern dumb phone can do this, how hard can it be to implement? The GUI for SMS and the GUI for displaying pictures inline with messages is already in place- how hard can it be for Apple to display incoming MMS messages?

[Vincent Ferrari]

I probably should clarify.

I don't use the feature, so I obviously don't care about it, but there are a lot of features I'd like to see implemented that aren't (notes syncing, external keyboard support, copy & paste, etc.) that I think would appeal to more people than MMS. Also, if you think about it, MMS would create a huge uproar in the US because AT&T isn't about to give that away, so we'd have to sit through weeks of kvetching because they charged for it.

Quite the can of worms.

I'd say once they get the major stuff done, something like MMS is a nice addition, but there's too much that needs to be done to even look at it.

[Rocky Sullivan]

I think there are cultural differences in the use of phones at the moment with some features held as more important in certain countries than others.

A lot of the comments i see in forums that play down the importance of MMS on the iphone appear to come from US users.

In Europe and in the UK in particular the use of MMS has become more widespread. I will send SMS everyday of the week and often several times a day. I send and receive MMS only about once or twice a week on average but when i do, they are important to me.

As a gadget fan the iphone loses some of its appeal once you realise that your kids with relatively cheap pay as you go phones can send MMS messages and you cant.

[Snowmation]

Hard to really care about MMS when you have a data connection and email.....well....as long as the people you like sending images to also have data connections. :p