Between November and December 2004, one word occupying maximum media space was multimedia messaging service (MMS). The debate still rages on whether the issue was hyped by the media or did it really demand so much attention? Whatever the outcome, the case has helped in creating 'awareness' about an application that was going unutilized.

MMS is not new and all the GRPS-enabled networks are offering these services. Same with phones, today most of the GPRS handsets that have a camera, come loaded with MMS features.

But leave aside using MMS, many mobile users may have not used or even got their GPRS activated. A Gartner estimate indicates that in 2003, just 5.4 percent of cellular service revenues in India came from wireless data services. Majority of this came from games, ringtone downloads, and SMS.

However, huge bets have been placed on data services and analysts have been predicting that SMS is likely to give way to MMS. An IDC quarterly wireless services tracker predicted, MMS users in the Asia-Pacific region would grow by over 50 percent in 2004. However, even with this 50 percent rise, MMS users would represent only 4.3 percent of the total wireless subscribers by the end of the year 2004.

A Hutch release said an average of 70,000 MMS were exchanged daily on its network, an increase of 20 times from the average of 3,000 MMSs were exchanged in February 2003.

In India, the IDC report said, only 0.2 percent of the total mobile subscribers would be using MMS. Unlike SMS, which spread like wildfire and was largely responsible for killing the radio paging industry, MMS has not attracted eyeballs. Reasons: SMS was free initially and MMS is a paid service from the start, being part of the GPRS offering. Also, though the service offerings are over the nationwide networks, the usage remains largely confined to the teenagers in the metros.

Precise figures are hard to come by. The small percentage of usage makes MMS figures an unattractive candidate for wide publicity by the service providers. However, according to an Airtel official, while SMS might account for almost 12 percent of total revenue over mobile networks, MMS would not be more than one percent in 2004.

Scandals Perk the MMS Phones
For sending any multimedia message, one has to have a GPRS-enabled phone with the MMS features. Currently, most of the camera-enabled phones are also MMS enabled. In the last quarter of 2004, the market witnessed a jump in the demand for camera phones.

"Within a short span of a year, the Indian mobile-phone market has rapidly changed from a market for plain vanilla phones into a thriving market for colored screen, application-rich phones. GPRS-enabled mobile phones and mobile phones with in-built cameras today constitute 24 percent and 10 percent of the market respectively," says Nareshchandra Singh, assistant manager, communication research, IDC India.

However, the distributors of handsets say that this did not mean everybody is looking for an MMS device. Even before the networks were made MMS ready, MMS phones were available and were being purchased. And even when the GPRS was activated, these phones were used to click simple pictures that were sent across. Multimedia messaging was not a priority then.

After the media brought MMS cases to the front pages, the curiosity level has gone up and people have at least started to experiment with MMS on their phones. The demand for MMS-enabled phones in the last quarter has gone up by almost 20 percent.

"We were already witnessing rise in demand for camera phones in the metros. But the two cases gave users an unexplored application and even in B and C category cities demand for these phones rose," says Manoj Seal, national product manager, BenQ, Esys Information Technologies.

Broadly the handset market is divided in two parts, the entry-level phones (ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 8,000) and the high-end sets (Rs 10,000 onwards). Last year saw almost 40 percent of the first-time buyers preferring high-end models against the normal trend of 20 percent. Complementing this sale is the replacement or repeat sale market. According to distributors, almost 70 percent of the repeat sale is happening for camera- and MMS-enabled phones.

"Mainly teenagers buy these phones. But do not discount professionals.... The sales were already picking up. The scandal has only added fuel to the sales," said Ajay Kumar, managing director, The Computer Park, a reseller of Nokia phones.

So would the market flatten out again after the hype dies? Terming the two MMS cases as stray incidents, Ganesh S Rajan, area manager, Tech Pacific said, "There is no stopping of technology. MMS camera phone can be used to make small film documentaries too. IT professionals are using these phones for many useful purposes.... But the hype has raised the pace of sales."

Apart from the MMS cases, movies like Aitraz, remix song videos, ads, and TV serials with episodes dedicated to MMS crimes are contributing to the curiosity of the users. "These have lot of references to camera and MMS phones. And viewers go to shops looking for these phones," added Manoj.

Besides the curiosity and desire to have the latest, falling prices and intense marketing drives by the handset vendors are also pushing the market. Promotion of mobile data services by mobile operators and content providers has been adding to the demand for these phones.

However, users still have to educated on difference between a video clip and a MMS clip. The compressed MMS needs more permutation and combinations than SMS to be actually delivered. Curiosity might drive the sale of these phones for another couple of months but real test of usage and sale of MMS phones would come after that.

Anurag Prasad