The Mobile Data Association released a report last week stating the following:

The eagerly anticipated first announcement of picture messaging figures was made today by the Mobile Data Association (MDA). During the third quarter of 2006, an astonishing 88 million picture messages (MMS) were sent throughout the UK  on average, almost 1 million per day throughout July, August and September. Octobers total was the highest yet, with 30 million picture messages sent across the networks.

Keep in mind, this is the UK who are a bit more forward with their mobile data service usage than us Americans. But it seems that since MMS is getting more ubiquitous and easier to use (read: less worries about cross-phone and cross-carrier compatibility), people are beginning to use it to send their pictures about. Heck I’ve even started using it now that my plan counts MMS’s as SMS’s and not as a separate bucket.

I’ve spoken before about how I think Email will trump MMS in the long run, and this certainly makes me step back and think. But I still believe one-trick pony’s have limited staying power. Carriers can monetize so much more easily on MMS right now - if Email were to pick up with the non-business crowd, data plans would have to support it for the average Joe.

No average user is going to shell out for the unlimited data plan right now - though the unlimited plans for the US for certain types of phones (PDA plans or media plans with unlimited data) are starting to come into reasonable price ranges. Will we eventually see Email-supporting plans in the single digit dollar range like SMS/MMS plans are now? I don’t know. But low plan pricing is what will allow MMS to trump Email.

Till this starts to flesh out more, I’ll point to item #3 in Infoworld’s Mobile and Wireless Trends for ‘07 list:

3. The democratization of mobile e-mail

Cheaper devices and more mobile access options will mean that more people will use more mobile applications. The most popular of these applications is likely to be mobile e-mail. Previously, only early adopters and higher-level executives had mobile e-mail devices like the BlackBerry. But with e-mail-capable smart phones now available for the masses, the masses will start using mobile e-mail.

“BlackBerries used to cost $500 or $600, which made them available mostly to people in the boardroom or high-level employees, where that expense could be justified,” Kerton said. “Now, as IT managers are more familiar with mobile e-mail, that brings down the IT challenge. If you add cheaper devices, you have a significant drop in the total cost of ownership. So we’re looking at any employee who spends time away from their desk having e-mail access.”

Some of that e-mail access will come via enterprise-class server-based applications such as Microsoft Exchange. But Kerton also predicts the rise of services from vendors such as Visto Corp. and Seven Networks Inc. that are being offered by cellular operators to provide easy, no-configuration access to e-mail for nontechnical users.

Lubna sure knows how to throw a party. There was a great turnout, great food, nokia Eseries phones giveaway, and a belly dancer!

I’ll be attending the Mobile Monday NY Holiday Party Monday the 18th! Looks like it will be a great time. If you are going and feel like meeting up, let me know.

What: MoMo New York Holiday Party
When: December 18th, 2006, 7-10:30 PM
Where: Le Souk
47 Avenue B (Cross Street: 3rd Street)
New York, NY 10009
(212) 777-5454

I can’t live without RSS. It has changed my personal and professional life and my ability to access personalized, sorted, timely information. Let’s put aside the fact that I can’t find an ideal mobile RSS aggregator solution yet - that’s not the subject here. I’ve been playing with some of the latest mobile widget services to see if there’s a reason for me - or information hounds like me - to actually use these things for more than just a novelty.

More specifically, are there certain RSS feeds or pushed data normally found on the desktop that are appropriate for the phone?

Blogs/News? Only if it’s synced to my desktop/web aggregator. If I digest news items, I don’t want them showing up on other devices again. That’s why I never use a native RSS reader, and why I can’t find a truly great mobile RSS reader (yet - Google Reader’s WAP version is getting there).

Friends’ photos? The phone is a personal device, so having the latest photos from my friends would be a nice touch. That said, I’m on my desktop a lot more than my mobile, and I want them there too. So if I’m RSSing photos, I want them synced up just like my news feeds. If I have to wade through previous photos to get to the new ones when I switch to my mobile device, it becomes a data hogging annoyance.

Sports? I’m the kind of guy who can wait till the day after for the NFL scores. If I were the kind of guy who wants to be in the action while mobile, I’d rather have streaming video or a real play-by-play app.

Local Events? Maybe I’m showing my lack of social prowess here, but I’m usually at home deciding what I want to do before I go out and do it. It’s rare that I’m out and about and say to myself, “hey, wonder what’s going on around the corner!” and redirect myself on the fly.

Weather? Not really - I’m always on my desktop before I go out, so I can hit up NOAA. While I’m mobile, I’m really more interested in hourly info or radar - more up to the minute things. If I want quick weather, there’s easy WAP sites for it, and many phones have home screen widgets that work just fine.

Mail? No way if it’s just a feed. I want full-blown access to my mail if I’m going to get it while mobile. Nothing would tick me off more than getting mail and being crippled as to managing it or replying.

I very much want to get into services like these:

Plusmo

Bluepulse

Widsets

Widsets’ development environment and generally good execution gets me kind of excited. But wading through their widgets and trying to come up with ideas to create my own led me to the brainstorming above. Now add some more reasoning to why I don’t dive in:

- My XV6700 already has crap battery life. I have push email turned off for that reason. I don’t want unneeded network access.

- I don’t miss data when it’s not pushed. If the phone is not going to go the extra mile and do things like pull down digital camera reviews while I’m in the digital camera section at Best Buy, it should stay off the network and save the power for when I want to actively browse the web, pull down my email, or (gasp!) make a call.

- My needs when mobile are very diverse. Sometimes I desperately need an IMDB lookup for some actor that comes up in conversation. Sometimes I need product reviews and price comparisons. Sometimes I need directions. Sometimes I just want content to pass the time.

So here I am, wanting to adopt these very cool apps but stuck with an un-synced chasm between my desktop and mobile lives and unpredictable, diverse needs that usually require hitting desktop-web sites while mobile. Mobile widgets won’t solve this. RSS won’t solve this alone. Any suggestions as to how I can start to love these things? Can they solve something I haven’t thought of?

Last September, my grandmother (81 years old) was in a bit of a pickle. She was driving the 5 miles or so from her place to my mom’s and heard a loud pop from her car. Turns out the brake lines lost pressure and all she was left with were minimal brakes (kinda like putting your foot out the door to try to stop the car).

Seeing as she had no cell phone, she decided to press on and managed to arrive at (well, slightly past, due to the no brake thing) my mom’s place without incident. A happy ending - luckily - but it brought up a fear of her being in worse situations and not being able to call anyone.

So I’ve decided to get her a phone for Christmas.

There’s one thing I had to keep in mind though - electronics baffle her. I know she’s not alone in her age bracket with this problem - and she’s probably better than most. I actually got her to use instant messaging at one point, but she signed each message she sent with “love, grammie” like mini-emails.

But I digress - putting her in a stressful situation and then having her use a cell phone might be too much.

Here’s my plan:

The Firefly from Cingular. Two big buttons to call up numbers for mom (played by my mom, her daughter) and dad (played by me). I purchased the phone on a prepaid plan so it doesn’t cost her anything.

The only problem is that batches of minutes expire after 30 to 360 days (based on how large a bucket you buy). This could could turn into a serious problem. She will be using this phone for emergencies. So if the minutes are expired when she really needs it - well that defeats the purpose, doesn’t it. So for now, we’ll get the larger batches of minutes, just so they last a year, and renew them on her birthday or Christmas or whatever to make sure we stay on top of it.

I’ll report after the holidays on how she takes to the interface. I really can’t get it much simpler. But now I have to make sure she remembers to keep it charged. Ugh.