Mobile carriers and content providers are looking with extreme attetion at the upcoming Olympic Games in Athens and at the European Football Championship in Portugal. Sports and football in particular represent the perfect hook to get people attention (and money) with mobile services.
T-Mobile, which is official sponsor of Euro 2004, has presented last week a series of interactive services that will constantly keep football fans updated with Sms' during the matches, as well as with video content and Mms'. As Silicon explains, marketers will take advantage of summer's sport events to make users discover the attractiveness of MMS. According to a new research by NOP, in the UK, 79 per cent of mobile users have never sent or received an MMS, a number which is pretty high, even if we have to say that a lot of people still haven't the technology to send multimedia messages.
I'm not actually sure technology is the only issue preventing users to send MMS. The service's price is also very important but the main reason that comes into my mind is: usefulness. Do users really have things to communicate that require a picture or a video? SMS already do an excellent job allowing people to keep in touch in a fast, cheap and immediate way. Do I need an MMS to tell a friend that I'm late? When I'm on vacation, do I really need an MMS to tell my friends I'm having fun?
MMS' are a cool service for news and entertainment, but I'm not sure they will be as successful in peer-to-peer communication.