Because in most cases information for each service providers MMS server is programmed by the manufacturer in the code plug at a lower level.

EG:



If a SIM from a different service provider is put in the phone I used in the above example, MMS for the new provider will not work because the phone would be contacting the other service providers MMS server.

As I posted before, it always looked to me as another way carriers locked customers to their service or more correctly; it was just another stream that they managed in order to increase their average revenue per subscriber. This month free Nights and Week-ends, next month 10 extra MMS and call anyone in Oklahoma free, yadda, yadda, yadda.

In any event, I am hoping Nokia's efforts with Maemo is to produce a class of world phones that aren't network carrier dependent and do not chain their owners to the schemes cooked up by the cell phone service providers.

MMS as well as WAP, imho are standards that are used as a stopgap until handset screen resolution, processing power, and network bandwidth caught up.

I'm thinkin' with the N900 on 3G, they caught up.

And BTW (not you gerbs), @ whoever said that the same people on this forum saying MMS doesn't matter were the ones shouting the loudest about the iPhone not having MMS back in the day.
Really?
A year and a half or so ago a phone was the last thing we talked about on this forum. Maemo didn't have a phone then and the only interest in the iPhone was over how we could snatch some of the iPhone specific sites and use them on our non-phone tablets. >> http://browser-extras.garage.maemo.org/news/8/
</rant>

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MMS serves a purpose but if implementing it involves input from the service providers you can count me out.