The inability of the latest generation of multimedia messaging service (MMS) cellphones and wireless services to communicate with each other may hinder the growth in the much ballyhooed market segment.
"It's all about communications ... [handsets and services must be able to exchange information because] the basic motivation of using a phone is being able to connect to other people," said Michael Pousti, CEO of SMS.ac, a San Diego-based mobile messaging service company.
MMS is a new advanced data transmission mobile service allowing cellphone users to send text messages, audio files or color pictures including photos and graphics.
Current problems with MMS are two-fold: First, handset makers have not created a standard for MMS exchange, resulting in blurry photo transmissions sent from, for example, a Nokia phone to a Sony Ericsson phone.
Second, wireless-service providers also have no MMS communication standard, meaning subscribers to different services, such as Taiwan Cellular Corp (
This lack of inter-connectivity among cellphone platforms is a major stumbling block that is expected to force industry players to sit down and work on the issue.
"The industry has realized the challenge is there, and sooner or later major telecom vendors in the world need to make an effort to work it out," said Alex Yang, software integration division manager at Nokia Taiwan Co.
Both Pousti and Yang made the remarks at a sideline of the two-day MMS Taiwan 2002 seminar in Taipei yesterday. Over 20 global telecom players are in town to talk about the development of MMS.
In June, Taiwan Cellular launched the nation's first MMS feature, followed by Chunghwa Telecom in August.
Far EasTone Telecom Co (
Resolving the problem will require cooperation among rivals.
"This is a business issue not a technical problem. The technology is already there, but carriers want to protect their own interests and have therefore decided not to allow inter-connections," Yang said.
The government, meanwhile, is pressuring competitors in the sector to come up with a solution.
"The Directorate General of Telecommunications has talked with operators and urged them to quickly form an interconnection agreement," Yang said.
They hope to finalize inter-connection and roaming agreements early next year, he said. Manufacturers are already working on handset compatibility, Wang said.
"Handset companies have been working on this ... and in three months to maybe a year there will be a standard that everyone can use," Yang said.
While the MMS handset penetration rate in Taiwan is less than 1 percent, makers are hoping 50 percent of next year's new cellphones will be MMS ready.
Industry professionals, meanwhile, said the nation's MMS development is very promising.
"Taiwan will be faster [than most countries in the US and Europe] in adopting MMS," said Jay Teborek, a director at MMS software, creator Comverse Network Systems Asia Pacific Limited.
Taiwanese mobile operators, have the money to invest in new services, he said.
Tech-crazed Taiwanese change handsets almost twice as often as their US or European counterparts -- a boon for telecom makers, Teborek said.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is