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UK wireless consultancy Mobile Streams has launched a storage service for Multimedia Messaging service (MMS) messages.
Mobile Streams' chief executive officer, Simon Buckingham, said that the company's on-line storage service, MMSstore.com, will allow users to store up to 500 MMS messages. Customers are charged a flat rate of USD5 per month and the company reserves the right to suspend the subscription if "malicious or offensive" material is being stored.
MMS has often been described as the next generation of SMS as it allows consumers to send messages between mobile phones that have far greater graphical and animation elements than current mobile messages. Examples of MMS messages include birthday cards, animated cartoons and multi-media presentations.
Buckingham told ElectricNews.Net that the ability to store such messages will increase in importance as MMS grows in popularity. "As people begin to use MMS they are going to quickly build-up a folder of messages that they aren't going to want to lose, such as important business presentations or holiday photos. Our service will give users peace of mind that these message will be stored securely for as long as they want to keep them," he commented.
He added that the storage service would also allow people who change their phone or network to retain their messages, as well as ensure that those who have had their mobiles stolen could still access their MMS messages.
Another advantage of the service, claimed Buckingham, is that it will work with any Sony-Ericsson T68 regardless of whether the user's network or T68 has been upgraded to support MMS. This, he said, was because MMSstore.com uses an e-mail client allowing MMS messages to be sent via the e-mail program on such phones.
However, MMS is not expected to become a mass-market service until next year. At the moment, only Sony-Ericsson and Nokia have shipped MMS-enabled phones and models such as the T68i from Sony-Ericsson are not yet widely available.
Although Buckingham admitted that MMS usage "will not take off for some time," he added that this had not deterred Mobile Streams from launching the service. The introduction of MMSstore.com at this time, he commented, was to enable the company to capture early adopters.
"By signing-up people who are already using the service we can build up a business relationship with them and market further MMS applications to them," remarked Buckingham, who said that the company planned to launch more strategic MMS services by the end of the summer. He declined to discuss what these services would be.
MMSstore.com was developed in-house by Mobile Streams and is being made available to third parties for white label solutions. Mobile Streams also recently launched a range of MMS screensavers which can be found at www.mulitmediamessaging.com.
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