AT&T and Apple sued for lack of MMS capability
Frankly MMS is a dinosaur of a technology and won't be around in 5 years. It also enables Telcos to charge you for something that should be free. You can accomplish everything MMS does on mobile email so long as your recipient has email on their phone. Sure, not everyone does now, but they will...soon.
That being said, Apple and AT&T are being sued because the iPhone has yet to get MMS in the US - though it has been touted as a feature by both Apple and AT&T. AT&T has promised this feature (and tethering) by late summer. We are pretty Meh on the whole issue but were pretty sure a lot of you feel strongly about this. Here's the long version:
A class action started in a Louisiana district court alleging that Apple and AT&T touted the iPhone as supporting MMS (multimedia messaging service) but have not as yet provided the service. The plaintiffs allege that Apple "advertised heavily that the new version of iPhone, the 3G, as well as the even newer version the 3G-S would allow MMS. Apple's print and video advertisements in and on television, the internet, the radio, newspapers and direct mailers all touted the availability of MMS." AT&T advertised the same functionality, the filing says.
But since the launch, in the USA, such functionality is not yet available. The court filing says the AT&T Answer Center page said: "Customers who are sent a MMS message and own a non-MMS capable device will receive a text message instead of an actual MMS message." But, the filing alleges: "AT&T is not a carrier which offers MMS! Of course, AT&T is the only carrier in the United States used by the iPhone. In other words, AT&T's towers do not support MMS." Apple, says the filings, has revealed that AT&T has never upgraded its towers so as to support MMS functionality. "The only excuse offered by AT&T and Apple is a mouseprint disclaimer on the website, in barely readable font, which reads 'MMS Support from AT&T coming in late summer'". The class action suit alleges the Louisana suit will consist of at least 10,000 individuals. The action is brought both under the Louisiana Unfair Trade Practices Act and other Louisiana civil codes.
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Comments (28)
Grow up. It clearly states "Later this summer"
End of discussion.
PeterZ = AT&T Fan Boy!
+1
It's fucking Mid August, I'd consider that the latest in summer you can get!
The last day of summer is September 20th. And Apple HAS put that disclaimer on every one of their pieces of advertising that mentions MMS. This lawsuit isn't going to go anywhere.
Hummmmm.....summer is almost over!!!
I can't understand why so many are up in arms about this (other than the fact that they are not getting what is promised). Have been using email for years here in Japan. Why didn't ATT and Apple just get everyone to use email? Don't you get an email address with ATT? We get one from Softbank, and of course you have several other options with an iPhone...
In the US, dumb phones (most without usable e-mail capabilities) are ubiquitous. I know iPhone has gotten a lot of users, but most people here don't have good mobile phones. All phones that I know of that are sold in the US by major carriers (except the iPhone, of course) can do MMS (even the ones on AT&T). The US is NOT up to speed with Europe and especially not Japan in terms of both phones and cellular services. MMS is the only reliable means of sending a picture to another mobile phone (at least it was until the iPhone grew in popularity). In fact, I have a friend that the ONLY way I could share a digital photo in a digital format with him would be through MMS.
In a word, GOOD! I'm so sick of being price gouged by Telcom companies and they say they don't have MMS. Guess what, lesser phones than the iPhone do MMS, so if I pay more for my services, shouldn't we be the first in line to get those services? I hope they both lose!
not all phones have email, so MMS comes into play.
Having said that, I wish texting & MMS would go away, and have everyone use push email :-)
It's going the other way.. email is being replaced - I rarely use it now, prefering other, more spam free, methods of communication.
Most phones don't have email, and of those that do most of them don't actually work, plus data plans cost money and a lot of (the vast, vast majority) people don't have one.
SMS is pretty much free these days.. MMS isn't exactly overpriced for the times you need to send pictures, music, large amounts of text, etc.
How is SMS free? I'm pretty sure it costs as much for SMS as it does to have a data plan. On AT&Ts site you can get family unlimited texting for $35, or you could get family unlimited data for $35.
How can they sue Apple - the phone is capable of doing MMS - it's the networks fault that it can't! Hardly Apple's fault and as PeterZ states - it does state "Later this summer"
Ps - i'm a UK iPhone user and MMS works fine here (if not a little slowly when out of 3G area!)
Because Apple is advertising it as a working feature in the US and, obviously, it is not
No they're not advertising it in the US. Not a single TV commercial or print ad here has said "MMS is here!" And anywhere it is mentioned says it's coming from AT&T in late summer.
Later this Summer? It's almost Fall...
I'm not bothered about MMS. I prefer cream from the top of the milk. But then, I am a cat.
Yours
Tiddles.
Because Apple is advertising it as a working feature in the US, and, it obviously is not
The end of summer IS September 21. As long as AT&T enables it on or before that date, they've met their agreement. BUT it's still BS that it's taking so damn long, there is no excuse for the delay.
As to why don't we just use email? It's a PITA to do that for everyone you either want to send media to or receive from for all parties involved. Then for many people they get charged by the Telecoms for using email and not MMS.
Personally I think this is good, granted it should only be directed at AT&T. I think the bigger problem is that even though the iPhone is lacking MMS because of AT&T failing to make it available, its the lack of their viewmymessage.com service is warrants this. Since the iPhone's release, they advertised that you can still receive pics and such by email, while blaming Apple for not including it in the phone. 3 years later, and now that Apple has included it, AT&T still hasnt provided the service for it even though the phone is capable. And if you have ever used the viewmymessage service, you not it is HIGHLY unreliable. Yet AT&T used this as their justification for the iphone still being capable of MMS. So yea, this could stand up due to AT&T not being able to provide the service included in plan. Especially if you had a 3g plan when it first came out, MMS WAS included in the plan yet not offered. Even though they have the Opt Out clause now, they have nothing to cover them from the time were there was no Opt Out clause and viewmymessage was not working properly. So AT&T could definitely be at fault during that period and I believe we as customers should be warranted compensation for paying for services we were not receiving.
The fact remains legally that iPhone users were excluded from the service that was bundled in their pricing package and that many enjoyed prior to obtaining the iPhone with the same carrier. The iPhone users in addition paid a higher premium for" the same service ." than other users on the same carrier and the carrier provided false information in the actual cause for the non service. At&t says its Apples fault and that the Iphone does not support MMS capability but we all know that is false. AT&T when cornered will not admit the cause of the no service for fear of looking poor and giving their competition more advertising ammunition.
Apple should be in the clear but AT&T clearly should be reimbursing the consumer some portion of the service cost between the release of 3.0 and when the MMS is activated.
MMS isn't really a huge issue but it would be very convenient to have. I know many people that do not have a smart phone and no data plan so they can't send or receive e-mail.
Actually I would have been happy if AT&T would have let us set it up so that if someone sends an MMS to my iPhone it would redirect it to my e-mail address. Instead of that ridiculous webpage that we have to go to and enter a message ID/password.
So then should we all hop on the lawsuit bandwagon and sue AT&T and Apple for not having 3G service everywhere? Christ, I can't even go to work and keep an AT&T signal... more bars, more places, my ass.
Whatever. Apple should NOT advertise in the USA for things that aren't out for unless they put a disclaimer after the commercial. It doesn't matter how much WE know and read up on it, its still a matter that they do it for people who aren't obsessed with reading mac news.
Plus come on, its MMS. Shouldn't be that difficult if a dumb phone can do it, the iPhone should be able to by mid 2009 at the very least.
SMS is (nearly) free?!?
Try $30 per month for family text plan. THAT is what AT$T should be getting sued over.
SMS requires NO MORE overhead than your phone does sitting at idle.
The SMS message piggybacks on data exchanged between the hand set and the tower. This data will be sent irrespective of whether or not an SMS is attached.
The TELCOs have ZERO incremental costs for SMS and therefore should include it. The fact that the idiot teenage crowd prefers this over a phone call is the only reason TELCOs can get away with charging for this.
I love textfree from pinger!
They have money, they have wrkers. Hve their tool idiot fucking workers "turn on" or whatever bullshit excuse they have to activate mms. Simply put..they want to wait till the very end to spend $ on something they have been getting over on for a while now. AT&T is pathetic as far as a service offering customer. To defend AT&T is the same as defending our government. It's a joke. Any honest attempt at defending either is a red flag pointing toward ones own obvious stupidity and lack of intellect/thought process.
"That being said" is atrocious English. I thought Apple users were supposed to be the cream of the crop? I mean, if a cat can post in this forum, surely we can see the end of that useless modifier. Please.
(And no more 'that having been said', which makes more logical sense but is even more stylistically grating.)