Now the tethering plans is where they really rape people.
Yeah, no doubt. And that is my original point, if all they are really interested in is making money, then tethering would have been an option from the get go. So I still say they were a bit concerned about network congestion.
Nope-you are never going to convince me-I am a College Grad-there is a reason phone calls (and text messages) are not appropriate in class-NOTHING is that important.
I am not sure I would use it much even if it was FREE-to me it is no less rude when someone in a restaurant or movie theatre is typing away on their cell phones than it is to carry on a full blown conversation.
The iPhone is perfectly capable of MMS texting, just as it is perfectly capable of tethering. The fact of the matter is, AT&T doesn't have a plan that allows either of these on the iPhone. (Although, AT&T is supposed to release a tethering plan soon, if it hasn't already.) That was probably a decision both Apple and AT&T made to try and make sure the options that were available worked without issue. The iPhone was and still is in its infancy (well an 800lb. infant gorilla anyway). It will continue to mature and hopefully features and options will be added.
This issue has come up before and more than likely it relates to bandwidth issues and network congestion. With mobile Safari being able to render normal web pages, they were afraid of users wreaking havoc on the cell network, which if you all remember actually happened after all those shiny new iPhone 3Gs were sold in such a short amount of time. Add on top of that MMS texting and bandwidth hogging phone tethering and you're left with a fried network.
I believe once AT&T gets the network up to speed to support all this data coming from all the iPhone users (and other 3G users) in the US, they will begin to offer more of the same options as other phones. Of course the monthly rates will go up and more people will whine about it, but at least the options will be there.
For those of you quick to blame Apple, if this 3rd party developer and mobile provider in Sweden can offer up MMS without needing Apple's assistance (only blessing), why hasn't AT&T in the US?
That makes sense, Scandinavian countries in general have a much more capable wireless network than the U.S. According to one previous poster they can even use the same 3G network on their computers without paying additional fees.
Sure, I agree. Hard to avoid though. I pay for the privilege of having voicemail - included in an option package. But I can only receive 3 messages. To be able to hold more I need to upgrade my extras package. When I asked what exactly they needed 10 extra dollars for, the sales guy gave me a load of vapor and finally came up with 'storage'. I told him I get several gb's from google for zero so why should I pay $10 per month to store max 10 paltry voice messages. He shrugged (what else could he do?) and I didn't pay. Two years and many frustrations with 'your mailbox is full', later - I am still pissed. My plan is up in Jan so guess what will be under the tree for me? Yup, a lovely new phone, a new plan and a whole new bunch of services that'll make me go to sleep at night grinding my teeth.
Can't believe you only get THREE messages stored. BRUTAL-What carrier is that?
On ATT, MMS/SMS are treated the same, as far as plans goes. If you have a SMS plan, then MMS are included. It's like that for all their phone that can do MMS and SMS.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Enigmafan420
I just DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR IT-$30/month for data should be all inclusive.
And when I had it w/T-Mobile, I used maybe 10 messages per month, so no, an addition $30 (for my family plan) isn't worth it!
On ATT, MMS/SMS are treated the same, as far as plans goes. If you have a SMS plan, then MMS are included. It's like that for all their phone that can do MMS and SMS.
Yeah I know-but NONE are included-at least with the 2G you got 200 message, now you get ZERO (for $10/month more)
So you don't want the extra charge for SMS or MMS. You are right, with the 3G, you have to pay extra for SMS. But for those who would like it, they already have a txt plan.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Enigmafan420
Yeah I know-but NONE are included-at least with the 2G you got 200 message, no you get ZERO (for $10/month more)
You're better off with no txt plan if you only get about 10 a month. It's only one buck.
So you don't want the extra charge for SMS or MMS. You are right, with the 3G, you have to pay extra for SMS. But for those who would like it, they already have a txt plan.
You're better off with no txt plan if you only get about 10 a month. It's only one buck.
Actually 10 a month would be $2, they are now 20 cents (!) each.
So I just have text completely turned off and pay nothing-and I don't get any SPAM from AT$T either
What backwards phones are you talking about. Phones had email (at least phones in Europe and the rest of the forward thinking cellular world) before there was MMS.
Talking about the US. Also, btw, much of Asian markets (and even European markets) do a TON of MMS.
So as I stated in my last post... If this 3rd party developer and mobile provider in Sweden can offer up MMS without needing Apple's assistance (only blessing), why hasn't AT&T in the US?
Another point... Isn't phone tethering another lucrative option? Why doesn't AT&T offer that? Is Apple standing in the way of that as well? It's AT&Ts end user agreement that forbids tethering.
So the argument of revenue stream doesn't hold up, because AT&T could stand to make a lot more money off of iPhone tethering plans.
Why hasn't AT&T come out with a minutes tracking app?
They could, and as far as I know there's nothing in the SDK that wouldn't allow them to do this.
Far more emails are sent world wide than SMS/MMS. Smartphones are the fastest growing segment of mobile phones and generally they all now come with email clients.
If MMS was something so critically needed the iPhone would not sell as well as it has without it.
Then why was tethering pulled from the app store? Many of AT&T's current phones support tethering, why was the iPhone singled-out?
Maybe this image will help:
Because tethering for AT&T is another revenue stream, NetShare wasn't created with this in mind. However, the short answer to this is that AT&T and Apple are going to have tethering for the iPhone. AT&T has even SAID that it's coming. It's just a matter of time.
Again, I guarantee that the lack of MMS is not b/c of AT&T, but b/c of Apple.
Far more emails are sent world wide than SMS/MMS. Smartphones are the fastest growing segment of mobile phones and generally they all now come with email clients.
If MMS was something so critically needed the iPhone would not sell as well as it has without it.
And your numbers come from... where? Does it factor out Desktop emails, Notebook emails, PDA emails?
Beyond smartphone users (which comprise of a very small percentage of the overall U.S. wireless cellular market), how many of your friends TRULY use email on their handsets? i'm betting it's about ZERO.
Comments
Now the tethering plans is where they really rape people.
Yeah, no doubt. And that is my original point, if all they are really interested in is making money, then tethering would have been an option from the get go. So I still say they were a bit concerned about network congestion.
Nope-you are never going to convince me-I am a College Grad-there is a reason phone calls (and text messages) are not appropriate in class-NOTHING is that important.
I am not sure I would use it much even if it was FREE-to me it is no less rude when someone in a restaurant or movie theatre is typing away on their cell phones than it is to carry on a full blown conversation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5VQQ...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KaDCB1wSeQ
;-)
The iPhone is perfectly capable of MMS texting, just as it is perfectly capable of tethering. The fact of the matter is, AT&T doesn't have a plan that allows either of these on the iPhone. (Although, AT&T is supposed to release a tethering plan soon, if it hasn't already.) That was probably a decision both Apple and AT&T made to try and make sure the options that were available worked without issue. The iPhone was and still is in its infancy (well an 800lb. infant gorilla anyway). It will continue to mature and hopefully features and options will be added.
This issue has come up before and more than likely it relates to bandwidth issues and network congestion. With mobile Safari being able to render normal web pages, they were afraid of users wreaking havoc on the cell network, which if you all remember actually happened after all those shiny new iPhone 3Gs were sold in such a short amount of time. Add on top of that MMS texting and bandwidth hogging phone tethering and you're left with a fried network.
I believe once AT&T gets the network up to speed to support all this data coming from all the iPhone users (and other 3G users) in the US, they will begin to offer more of the same options as other phones. Of course the monthly rates will go up and more people will whine about it, but at least the options will be there.
For those of you quick to blame Apple, if this 3rd party developer and mobile provider in Sweden can offer up MMS without needing Apple's assistance (only blessing), why hasn't AT&T in the US?
That makes sense, Scandinavian countries in general have a much more capable wireless network than the U.S. According to one previous poster they can even use the same 3G network on their computers without paying additional fees.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5VQQ...eature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KaDCB1wSeQ
;-)
OUCH!
Those were funny-and make my point :O
Sure, I agree. Hard to avoid though. I pay for the privilege of having voicemail - included in an option package. But I can only receive 3 messages. To be able to hold more I need to upgrade my extras package. When I asked what exactly they needed 10 extra dollars for, the sales guy gave me a load of vapor and finally came up with 'storage'. I told him I get several gb's from google for zero so why should I pay $10 per month to store max 10 paltry voice messages. He shrugged (what else could he do?) and I didn't pay. Two years and many frustrations with 'your mailbox is full', later - I am still pissed. My plan is up in Jan so guess what will be under the tree for me? Yup, a lovely new phone, a new plan and a whole new bunch of services that'll make me go to sleep at night grinding my teeth.
Can't believe you only get THREE messages stored. BRUTAL-What carrier is that?
I don't see why the people who say "JUST USE EMAIL" don't want this. Let those of us who want to use MMS use it, and you keep using email.....sheesh.
I just DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR IT-$30/month for data should be all inclusive.
And when I had it w/T-Mobile, I used maybe 10 messages per month, so no, an addition $30 (for my family plan) isn't worth it!
I just DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR IT-$30/month for data should be all inclusive.
And when I had it w/T-Mobile, I used maybe 10 messages per month, so no, an addition $30 (for my family plan) isn't worth it!
On ATT, MMS/SMS are treated the same, as far as plans goes. If you have a SMS plan, then MMS are included. It's like that for all their phone that can do MMS and SMS.
Yeah I know-but NONE are included-at least with the 2G you got 200 message, now you get ZERO (for $10/month more)
Yeah I know-but NONE are included-at least with the 2G you got 200 message, no you get ZERO (for $10/month more)
You're better off with no txt plan if you only get about 10 a month. It's only one buck.
Honestly, why does SMS even exist? The implementation is so terrible in every possible way.
I can explain why it exists . . .
If people pay for it, it will exist, no matter how sucky or unfair it is.
The main reason (in the US at least) is simply: teenagers. They use it like crazy,
so their parents pay for it. They can text in areas where phone
use is not normally allowed (movie theatre, church, school, etc.) and send
their friends thousands of questions about who likes whom, who talked
to whom about whom, who said what about whom, and so on.
I speak from experience, as my daughter sends and receives about
8000 SMS messages per month.
The scary thing about this phenomenon is that it is allowing young people
to communicate without speaking, which I find very weird. My daughter will
actually sit in the same room or vehicle with a friend, and they will text each
other incessantly, even though they are close enough that a word (or a
whisper if it's a secret) would work just fine.
I can explain why it exists . . .
If people pay for it, it will exist, no matter how sucky or unfair it is.
The main reason (in the US at least) is simply: teenagers. They use it like crazy,
so their parents pay for it. They can text in areas where phone
use is not normally allowed (movie theatre, church, school, etc.) and send
their friends thousands of questions about who likes whom, who talked
to whom about whom, who said what about whom, and so on.
I speak from experience, as my daughter sends and receives about
8000 SMS messages per month.
The scary thing about this phenomenon is that it is allowing young people
to communicate without speaking, which I find very weird. My daughter will
actually sit in the same room or vehicle with a friend, and they will text each
other incessantly, even though they are close enough that a word (or a
whisper if it's a secret) would work just fine.
2 of my friends just switched to ATT and didn't get the iPhone because of this, it is one of those features that they wanted.
So you don't want the extra charge for SMS or MMS. You are right, with the 3G, you have to pay extra for SMS. But for those who would like it, they already have a txt plan.
You're better off with no txt plan if you only get about 10 a month. It's only one buck.
Actually 10 a month would be $2, they are now 20 cents (!) each.
So I just have text completely turned off and pay nothing-and I don't get any SPAM from AT$T either
What backwards phones are you talking about. Phones had email (at least phones in Europe and the rest of the forward thinking cellular world) before there was MMS.
Talking about the US. Also, btw, much of Asian markets (and even European markets) do a TON of MMS.
So as I stated in my last post... If this 3rd party developer and mobile provider in Sweden can offer up MMS without needing Apple's assistance (only blessing), why hasn't AT&T in the US?
Another point... Isn't phone tethering another lucrative option? Why doesn't AT&T offer that? Is Apple standing in the way of that as well? It's AT&Ts end user agreement that forbids tethering.
So the argument of revenue stream doesn't hold up, because AT&T could stand to make a lot more money off of iPhone tethering plans.
Why hasn't AT&T come out with a minutes tracking app?
They could, and as far as I know there's nothing in the SDK that wouldn't allow them to do this.
I still hold that this is more Apple than AT&T.
If MMS was something so critically needed the iPhone would not sell as well as it has without it.
Then why was tethering pulled from the app store? Many of AT&T's current phones support tethering, why was the iPhone singled-out?
Maybe this image will help:
Because tethering for AT&T is another revenue stream, NetShare wasn't created with this in mind. However, the short answer to this is that AT&T and Apple are going to have tethering for the iPhone. AT&T has even SAID that it's coming. It's just a matter of time.
Again, I guarantee that the lack of MMS is not b/c of AT&T, but b/c of Apple.
Far more emails are sent world wide than SMS/MMS. Smartphones are the fastest growing segment of mobile phones and generally they all now come with email clients.
If MMS was something so critically needed the iPhone would not sell as well as it has without it.
And your numbers come from... where? Does it factor out Desktop emails, Notebook emails, PDA emails?
Beyond smartphone users (which comprise of a very small percentage of the overall U.S. wireless cellular market), how many of your friends TRULY use email on their handsets? i'm betting it's about ZERO.
w00master