Another personal, and therefore meaningless, data point.

I personally handle about 500 emails daily, in batches. It's mostly open source stuff, and some to do with paid work. That's 15,000 emails each month. I also use IMs a fair amount for work conversations.

Yet I have <1 social email a month typically, and hardly ever use IMs socially.

My non-face-to-face social communications are about 10 SMSs daily, a couple of voice calls, reading other people's occasional Facebook and Livejournal updates, and about 1 MMS/month. I rarely write on any of the social networking sites; I prefer talking, and meeting people in person.

I do social IMs less than once a month - I don't bother with it any more. I used to IM much more, but I got bored and tired of it. Now IMs are mainly used for work only.

So socially, my communication mix is, most to least, SMS, voice, FB/LJ, MMS, and IM and email at the bottom. This despite being an experienced email and IM user for non-social communications, and having used both email and IMs more in the past socially.

In other words, this data point is someone who uses email and IM extensively, which makes a do-everything phone appropriate, yet still has practical needs to use MMS occasionally. Currently I carry the N900 and another cheap phone, which is silly.

I can't think of any way other than MMS to send a pic to my mother the same day it's taken. She has a basic phone, no internet access at home, and no library in her village.

What are these "many, many" other ways I can use to send a pic to my mother in near real time?