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-   -   really, why no MMS? (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=48300)

qwazix 2010-03-26 08:20

Re: really, why no MMS?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by gobuki (Post 582198)
One reason i guess was that the ratio of usefulness to complexity of an MSS app was far worse than many other things that deserved improvement/implementation. Plus i think there aren't that many users who want MMS.

And because of limited resources they had to leave something out.

So the question would be why did they have or still have limited resources.

Well, time is limited and as a software developer myself i know that it doesn't always help to throw more money on the issue. Too many cooks spoil the broth, you know.

IMHO it was a very good decision. I don't use MMS for the high costs. I would feel betrayed. And you should too. Let me give you an example (based on SMS, but MMS is comarable in that matter).

Lets assume a price per SMS of 9ct (Euro).
And lets further assume a price of 25ct for 1Mb internet traffic.

Now an SMS contains 140bytes (160 7bit characters). One megabyte is
1024 * 1024 bytes = 1048510 bytes. That means you would have to send 7490 SMS to transfer 1Mb, which would cost you a whopping 674,10 Euros. Compared to 25ct on the internet. So SMS traffic is roughly 2.600 times more pricey than internet traffic.
Now how do you feel about that? Is it fair? Or are you pissed off?


Edit: The prices i took are the lowest i found in germany.

The prices in one country is not an argument. Ok I do feel stolen by the price of SMS but I know of NO person (even with full flegded smartphones) who has his IM open on their phone. Even me I rarely used IM on a phone before N900 because of poor integration. Havig fring on the background on the N95 or 5800 was a horrible battery drain, and resource hog.(off topic but that's why I believe the N900 has awesome battery life. All other smartphones I used wouldn't last a day with wifi running let alone wifi and 3G hybrid) So sms is a must if you need to text someone. Now if you are on a prepaid plan in at least two providers here MMS costs the same as SMS without the stupid 160 char limit and with the ability to send lowercase greek letters (unicode sms's have an even more stupid limit of 70 chars). And since the MMS apn got automatic in phones some years ago, everybody can receive MMS's hassle free. I rarely use them, but those few times I needed it ("hey it looks like that, do you want me to buy it") have proven really useful. Until e-mail configuration becomes one click and data plans on phones less of a rip-off, (and until MMS get phased out on the whole industry) they are still useful.
I won't cry over a missing feature since there is an app for it. I bought a smartphone so I can add any software related missing feature with an app, but I think that saying it's useless is fanboyism. If it was there it would be standard and we would be all laughing about how incompetent apple is to have left it out. Anyway I really hope to see printing instead of native mms, I printed out a note off a E52 on my network lexmark laser and I was stunned with the simplicity of the solution, as much as I felt intimidated that a tiny phone was able to do what my 180gr linux computer isn't.
________
*****Cat_

ogre 2010-03-27 02:08

Re: really, why no MMS?
 
SMS and MMS are BOTH out of line with the direction which towards generic IP transported data.

I think the decision to leave out MMS and then allow it to still work but through an add on and not feel integrated was because at least some people at Nokia would prefer MMS goes away quietly.

The whole charging system for MMS is complex and unweildly all to allow the receiver free data while generally the sender pays much much more than the double charge needed to support the free data for the receiver.

The whole system is more a problem for the extra network prootocols for the network gear (than Nokia provides) than for It is more the n900.

I think that overall the mobile world would have an easier life if some of the pre-ip ideas like MMS die out,

If I send via email or IM any IP connection can be used, and even when the mobile infrastructure is used it is all much cleaner.

Even if Nokia would like it to die, there is still not a clean replacement as I may know the mobile number but not the email or IM. Until there is a cleaner system for the alternatives the death of MMS will be slow.

otrdriver5005 2010-03-30 14:01

Re: really, why no MMS?
 
Look I am not going to get into the debate why or why not we need it. I hear people say oh we can email a picture or share it online with a service and thats all good.Or the other argument that its old technology. But the bottom line is not everyone out there are phone geeks that use the high tech information swap. I love mms its simple and easy for everyone to use . If my 60 yo dad is at the lake fishing with his flip phone and catches a fish and takes a picture , I would enjoy being able to recieve a picture from him just like other people in my family does at that moment. EX: take picture of fish choose phone numbers press send then receive notification on my end picture available . Thats all simple techcnology that lots and lots of people still use. So please stop with the excuses that people dont use this anymore because they do and they will continue to use it. It will not go away and we have to understand not everyone wants to use a data package to send a simple picture. And the n900 is an internet tablet with a phone app installed. hmm . Its a phone that has very unique features and capabilities. When i sit my n900 down people dont say oh thats a very nice internet tablet they say that its a nice phone and I love the features that it has. So I say bring a simple way to do MMS to the N900. and if you dont want to use the feature then dont . But if you are like me and a lot of other folks then it will be a plus.

RevdKathy 2010-03-30 16:49

Re: really, why no MMS?
 
There IS a simple way to do MMS with n900. It's called 'fMMS' and it's getting better every day.

The huge advantage this has over anything that Nokia could have done (aside from Fral's brilliance) is that the community have been able to share in the task of suggesting things, testing it, watching it grow and develop. No hanging around to see if it 'might' be in the next update - whenever that's going to to happen.

FMMS may not be integrated in exactly the way you want and it may never be entirely, because of the maemo architecture (it simply can't have two APNs active at once - though switching is now automatic) but it's a hugely powerful and simple way of sending and receiving MMS, which is what you are asking for.

superg05 2010-03-31 02:59

Re: really, why no MMS?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Ulrik (Post 582106)
Because the N900 is not a phone. It is a tablet that can ring.

i love that excuse makes me smile to and helps me sleep at night but its because the phone was rushed to meet there launch dates and the reason why it was not added after so long and being greatly requested is because nokia is to lazy should have picked a better company mate like google next time google before you buy don't come to places lke this where most act like nokia sales reps and omit the phones flaws for u to get a nokia product

Texrat 2010-03-31 03:21

Re: really, why no MMS?
 
superg05, you seem to be short of punctuation marks. Here you go:
.........,,,,,

Don't say I never gave you anything!

twaelti 2010-03-31 06:49

Re: really, why no MMS?
 
What I really love about fMMS is that it allowed me to finally "get it" on how MMS works. Very interesting stuff :-)

kjmackey 2010-03-31 07:26

Re: really, why no MMS?
 
Why MMS?

This: By 2008 worldwide MMS usage level had passed 1.3 billion active users (source Tomi Ahonen Almanac 2009) who generated 50 billion MMS messages (source Abi Research 2008) and produced annual revenues of 26 billion dollars annually (source Portio 2009)

It makes operators money - in addition to the convenience of sending a picture directly to a phone without requiring the recipient to go to email or a picture site.

Now, T-Mobile in the US can't get its act together enough to allow me MMS to Vodafone in Ireland, but, other than that, I find fMMS handles my MMS requirements just fine.

That One Guy 2010-03-31 07:44

Re: really, why no MMS?
 
Why is everyone complaining about having to switch to the MMS APN in order to download their incoming (and send out their outgoing) MMS's?

Just keep your N900 on the MMS connection at all times. At least for T-Mo US, that works fine for data as well. I haven't used the "regular" APN in ages. I have my N900 to automatically connect to the MMS APN when it loses my home WiFi connection as I leave my house.

volt 2010-03-31 07:57

Re: really, why no MMS?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Ulrik (Post 582106)
Because the N900 is not a phone. It is a tablet that can ring.

Wrong.

The word "tablet" is nowhere on Nokias
product page. Infact, the heading is "The Nokia N900 Mobile Phone".

And if the lack of the word tablet there doesn't spell it out for you, let me point to what Nokias own stance on the issue is; calling it Internet Tablet is "not an option".

The N900 is a Mobile Phone, source Nokia, and it's an Mobile Computer, source Nokia, but it's not an Internet Tablet, source Nokia.

jerryfreak 2010-03-31 08:19

Re: really, why no MMS?
 
thanks kathy! i'll dl the newer version with auto apn switching and give it a go. is it still in extras-devel?

rambo 2010-03-31 08:23

Re: really, why no MMS?
 
In some networks the WAP APN cannot be used for regular data connections, thus the moan. Anyways MMS pricing is completely up to network, last time I checked the price (for my provider) to send was X cents per message (might have been slightly less than SMS base fee, or not) plus data transfer fees, but not double: receiver pays their data fees if they want the message to their device (they can choose whether to have the messages automatically pushed to the phone or not, if not the "legacy experience" web interface can be used). Of course the data fees are less of an issue these days due to flat-rate being so common (unless you're roaming, then you get shafted...)

MMS is definitely a cash-cow for networks but that is not a reason for a device manufacturer to support it, whether they want to spend resources on such thing based on projected client demand is another thing (in some cases the networks are the clients and thus there is very high client demand...)

Warning: political correctness tossed aside from this point on, if you're easily offended or your sarcasm detector is not working stop reading now.

The fact that millions of flies love fecal matter does not really support the argument that I should love it too.

IMO MMS is for wankers (there is nothing wrong in being a wanker though, whatever floats your boat and all that jazz) and I've always considered it a gimmick.

The photo resolution&quality sucks, video even more (since I don't think "recommended" 300kb limit has gone anywhere). Just about the only useful feature is HTML-like rendering so you can handle links in a nicer way (but the MMS composition apps in my MMS enabled phones sucked so I never used it anyway).

Yes, I'm an elitist bastard and of noble family, so the petty problems of hoi polloi concern me rather little.

offtopic: Interesting, a four letter word for fecal matter got censored, but the other "swear words" above are not (if censored later there is a six letter word for onanist)... AFAIRecall there as a thread somewhere trying to enumerate the "banned words" dictionary...

superg05 2010-03-31 16:55

Re: really, why no MMS?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by volt (Post 589307)
Wrong.

The word "tablet" is nowhere on Nokias
product page. Infact, the heading is "The Nokia N900 Mobile Phone".

And if the lack of the word tablet there doesn't spell it out for you, let me point to what Nokias own stance on the issue is; calling it Internet Tablet is "not an option".

The N900 is a Mobile Phone, source Nokia, and it's an Mobile Computer, source Nokia, but it's not an Internet Tablet, source Nokia.

glad someone can see with two eye's what its clearly marketed as any comebacks to proof on page looking back at you or will you divert thy eyes yet again and call it a tablet???

qwerty12 2010-03-31 16:59

Re: really, why no MMS?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by rambo (Post 589341)
IMO MMS is for wankers (there is nothing wrong in being a wanker though, whatever floats your boat and all that jazz) and I've always considered it a gimmick.

[...]

offtopic: Interesting, a four letter word for fecal matter got censored, but the other "swear words" above are not (if censored later there is a six letter word for onanist)... AFAIRecall there as a thread somewhere trying to enumerate the "banned words" dictionary...

Maybe it's because I hail from London (well, W. Yorkshire actually but who's taking notes?) but I do much prefer the word "tosser" to "wanker".


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