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Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS), launched some 18 months ago and aggressively pushed by global mobile communications players such as Nokia, is no longer a hype but reality. Its rich media format designed to enable users to send and receive video and still images combined with voice and text messages on a wireless device such as the new generation of imaging phones, has captured the attention of wireless developers worldwide, said Evans Data Corporation.

Based on two of its surveys (entitled The Evans Data Fall 2002 Wireless Developer Survey and Chinese Wireless Developer Survey) conducted in August this year, where more than 1,000 developers were interviewed, it found that almost one in four wireless developers have begun to write applications for the interoperable rich message format.

In China, which has the world's largest number of mobile phone subscribers, 29 percent of the developers said they are working on MMS or will be this year. In contrast, in its worldwide survey, 23 percent of the respondents said they are or will be working on MMS this year.

"We're continuing to survey wireless developers globally but also have inaugurated a separate survey that drills down on the Chinese wireless development market, which has experienced the most explosive growth," said Brian Cooper, market research analyst for Evans Data, the market intelligence source for the software developer industry.

The two companion surveys found that there were some stark contrast between Chinese developers and worldwide developers. These include:

* Chinese wireless developers are writing their applications with an eye to speed and quality. Among the top-ranked developer tools, performance-testing tools are considered one of the most important types of tools, and 70 percent of wireless applications spend more than a month in their quality assurance phase - 10 percent more than among worldwide developers.

* Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), such as Palm Pilots, are not common development targets in China. In fact, PDAs are close to the bottom of the list in China; even smart cards are more popular targets. China is basically more focused on cell phones. In contrast, two thirds of the worldwide developers in the Wireless Developers Survey target PDAs, making it the most common mobile target internationally.

* While email has traditionally been a top-ranked wireless application in the Wireless Developers Survey, that's not the case in China. Although email accounts for 38 percent of wireless application development, that application type is in the number 3 position. Instead, the top two wireless applications under development this year in China are consumer e-commerce applications (42 percent) and authentication (42 percent).

Related articles on this site:
Move Over SMS, Here Comes MMS
China Gears Up For The MMS Revolution
MMS The Next Big Thing?