Monday, June 27, 2011

E-Mail v MMS-Which is better?

When it comes to sending images, such as photographs from you to a friend via your phone there is 2 very different methods that we've looked at. Firstly we looked at sending MMS messages and more recently we've looked at sending E-mails with attachments, but which is better and why?

MMS The Pros
  1. Easy-It really is just a matter of clicking attach then adding the item you want to send.
  2. Direction-It goes directly to your contacts phone meaning they will get it and will likely have their phone on them.
  3. "Snap and Go"-You can literally take a picture and send it with in seconds
MMS The Cons
  1. Cost-Unless you have a free MMS allowance they can cost quite a bit to send, anywhere into the 35p range which adds up.
  2. Limitations of Receiver-Although most phones can now receive MMS some older phones can't and those new phone which don't have packet data on won't receive them either. 
  3. Limitations of Sender-MMS messages typically have a limitation in size and will often only allow 1 or 2 pictures per message.
E-Mail The Pros
  1. Simple-Although not as simple as sending via MMS it's still very easy and if you follow the guide on this blog you really will never struggle with them.
  2. Open Receiver-Everyone has an E-mail address as long as you know it you can send the message and know it will get to them.
  3. Price-This is completely free if you have either a wi-fi connection or a mobile internet allowance which most people do have.
  4. The limits have been lifted-Rather than only being able to send 1 or 2 images per messages you can actually send quite a few by e-mail at once.
E-Mail The Cons
  1. Return to Sender-You need to make sure you have the right address or the E-mail will fail.
  2. Time to Receive-Not everyone has access to their E-mails on their phone and may need to wait to access a PC/Laptop to actually see the image.
  3. New v Old-Whilst it's very easy to do on things like the Samsung Galaxy S2 it's not as easy to do on older phones like a Sony Ericsson C902.

So now the moment of truth, which is better?
Personally I'd tend to use the E-mail system whenever possible. The people I'd be sending images and things to are contacts I have the e-mail address for as well as phone numbers. Personally I think it's a bit pricey to be paying 30p a message (even though I do have an MMS allowance on one of my contracts) and I know at least 2 mobile contacts have packet data turned off anyway.

For some however, mainly those with perhaps older phones it'll likely be easier to pay the 30p or so to send the MMS rather than struggle through and send an attachment to an e-mail via logging in with the browsers that were used on the older phones. At heart though it's a personal choice, and one that could perhaps be avoided by sending them at home via something like an IM client. Personally I'd side with E-mail though it's not suited to everyone.

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