AT&T notifies iPhone users of impending MMS launch
Wireless carrier AT&T began sending out text messages this week letting iPhone users know that multimedia messaging capabilities will be available on Friday, Sept. 25. — The free message sent from AT&T to subscribers reaffirms …
Context & Ripple Effects
The MMS gap has been AT&T's most visible iPhone liability since November 2008, when reports first flagged that the carrier would ship the iPhone 3G without multimedia messaging (MMS coming to iPhone 3G). Pressure mounted through 2009: Apple and AT&T were sued in August for the missing capability, and PC World's September analysis of dropped calls and slow connections in New York and San Francisco framed the carrier's iPhone problems as network strain rather than handset flaws.
AT&T's text-blast this week converts a two-year exclusivity embarrassment into a scheduled fix: subscribers are told MMS goes live Friday, September 25. It lands alongside other capacity moves confirmed in mid-September, including the 3G MicroCell femtocell rollout to select markets — evidence the carrier is patching its iPhone experience on multiple fronts at once.
First-order effects
- U.S. iPhone users gain picture and video messaging on September 25, closing the feature gap with every other smartphone on AT&T's own lineup — including the Tilt 2 the carrier launches October 6.
- AT&T directly answers the August lawsuit filed by iPhone owners over the missing capability, removing its single most citable customer grievance.
Second-order effects
- MMS traffic now loads onto the same 3G network that PC World's reporting tied to dropped calls and congestion in New York and San Francisco, making network upgrades like the MicroCell deployment more urgent rather than less.
- With the last headline iPhone deficiency closed, rival handsets such as the HTC Tilt 2 lose their easiest selling point against the iPhone inside AT&T stores.
Third-order effects
- If exclusivity keeps drawing customers while service quality lags, the arrangement's benefit to AT&T becomes harder to defend publicly — a pattern that could shape how carriers weigh exclusive flagship deals against network-investment demands going forward.
The trend: Carrier-exclusive smartphones are shifting from differentiators into liabilities when software features lag the broader lineup, forcing operators to close gaps on the network's schedule rather than marketing's.