ME exec editor Tim Green laments the latest stats from the MDA.
We run a column in the back pages of Mobile Entertainment magazine called 'what was that about?'.It's an opportunity for us - sneering cynical journalists - to use the gift of hindsight to point out how wrong certain companies were to launch terrible products and services. If only they'd asked us, with our zero experience of R&D and product marketing. That's the general gist.
It's pretty easy to find stuff to write about. Take BT Movio's bizarre attempt to kickstart broadcast mobile TV in the UK back in 2006. Well, what a gift. It launched with a huge ugly handset that came with a kink on the side that looked like dislocated elbow. Even then it seemed like a terrible idea. Of course, it's obvious that individual product ideas will fail. They always will. That's business.
More interesting is when an entire market stiffs. Cast your mind back to the early days of 3G, when every operator believed fat pipes could open the market for video calling. Didn't happen. Has anyone reading ever made a video call? Exactly.
Ovum reckoned the market was worth $2 billion in 2007 - a quarter of the ringtone market. Interestingly, the idea flopped for sociological not technological reasons: there's little to be gained and plenty to be lost by broadcasting your hideous face to a caller. And you can bump into things too, which hurts and can cause bruising.
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Similarly unsuccessful has been MMS. While operators were always unsure about video calling, picture messaging was considered an odds-on winner. UK readers will remember those Vodafone ads in which the world's most overrated footballer ever (David Beckham) sent picture messages back to his ex-Man Utd team mates from Madrid.
But this week the true extent of MMS's enduring failure was revealed in Mobile Data Association research, which showed that Brits sent 78.9 billion texts in 2008, and just 553 million MMS messages. That's around one MMS for every 145 texts. Happily, the volume was up by nearly a quarter, but it's still a relatively tiny number.
It might help if MMS was properly interoperable. The last time I attempted to picture message Mrs Green, it didn't work. And she's on the same network as me. It was no loss to her, as the message had nothing to do with shoes.
