Sony Ericsson J300 White Paper page 16

MMS completes the potential of messaging. Send-
ing digital postcards and PowerPoint-style presen-
tations is expected to be among the most popular
user applications of MMS.
Multimedia Messaging uses WAP (Wireless Appli-
cation Protocol) or http as bearer technology which
also can be powered by the transmission technol-
ogy GPRS. This allows users to send and receive
messages that look like PowerPoint presentations.
The messages may include any combination of
text, graphics, photographic images, speech,
music clips and video. MMS will serve as the
default mode of messaging on all terminals, making
total content exchange second nature. From utility
to sheer fun, it offers benefits at every level and to
every kind of user.
Over the air (OTA) configuration
Users can easily get MMS into their phone. MMS
supports OTA, meaning that the user does not have
to configure the settings manually. The configura-
tion is done by the operator via OTA.
Note: The specification is in accordance with Erics-
son Nokia OTA configuration v7.1.
MMS objects
Although MMS is a direct descendant of SMS, the
difference in content is dramatic. The size of an
average SMS message is about 140 bytes, while
the maximum size (default) of an MMS message is
100 kB. That is why the key word to describe MMS
content is rich. Complete with words, sounds and
images, MMS content is endowed with the user's
ideas, feelings and personality. An MMS message
can contain one or more of the following:
Text
As with SMS and EMS (Enhanced Messaging Serv-
ice), an MMS message can consist of normal text.
The length of the text is unlimited. The main differ-
ence between an EMS and MMS message is that in
an MMS message, text can be accompanied not
only by simple pixel images or melodies but by
photographic images, graphics, audio clips and
video clips.
Templates
The phone comes with a number of MMS pre-
defined templates, for example templates for birth-
day cards, meeting requests etc.
Audio
MMS provides the ability to send and receive full
sound (MIDI, MP3, iMelody, AMR) messages. Not
only can users share a favourite song or ringtone
with a friend, they can also use the mobile phone to
record a sound and send it along with a message.
As sound includes speech as well as music, this
extra dimension to an MMS message allows for a
spontaneous and immediate personal expression
in communication messaging. Rather than sending
a downloaded birthday jingle in EMS, a user can,
for example, send a clip of his or her own personal
rendition of "Happy Birthday". The phone supports
the MIDI format.
Pictures and themes
Pictures and themes (downloaded or pre-defined)
can be exchanged via MMS.
PIM communication with MMS
By using MMS, it is easy to handle PIM (Personal
Information Manager) information. The user can
send and receive business cards (vCard), calendar
entries such as appointments (vCal) and notes
(text/plain).
Streaming content in MMS
Streaming makes it possible to view files while they
are being downloaded to the phone. In particular,
the following stages are considered:
• Upload from the originating terminal to the MMS
proxy.
• File exchange between MMS servers.
• Transfer of the media content to the receiving
terminal, either by file download or by stream-
ing. In the first case, the self-contained file is
transferred, whereas in the second case the
content is extracted from the file and streamed
according to open payload formats. In this case,
no trace of the file format remains in the content
that is transmitted over the wire or over the air.
MMS technical features
The MMS standard, just like that of SMS, offers
store-and-forward transmission (instant delivery) of
messages, rather than a mailbox-type model. MMS
is a person-to-person communications solution,
meaning that the user gets the message directly
into the mobile phone. He or she does not have to
call the server to get the message downloaded to
the mobile. Unlike SMS, the MMS standard uses
16
White Paper J300
July 2005