Apple iPhone Finally Gets MMS Service

AT&T and Apple have released an update that brings support for MMS (multimedia Messaging Service) to the most recent iPhone models. This carrier promised its customers earlier this year that they would be getting MMS service in the near future, and has now followed through.

The new version of the iPhone OS brings MMS support to the iPhone 3GS and 3G, but not the original version.

For those who are unfamiliar with it, MMS is an advanced form of texting (SMS) that allows users to add images and sounds.

Get It Now
To install this update, connect the smartphone to a computer running iTunes and click “Check for Update”.

This is an update to iPhone OS 3.1, so the latest version of Apple's system software has to be installed before MMS support can be added. 

Get Service
AT&T charges 20 cents per MMS message, but customers who expect to frequently exchange these messages should consider adding unlimited messaging to their service plan.

This costs $20 per month, or 1,500 messages cost $15, while 200 messages cost $5 per month. 

For more information, visit AT&T's iPhone Facebook page.

Why the Delay?
Apple didn't add support for MMS to the iPhone OS until earlier this summer, with the latest version. This debuted with the iPhone 3GS, and an update was released for the earlier versions of this smartphone, too.

But SMS service wasn't initially available to AT&T customers. According to this carrier, the popularity of the iPhone made it necessary for it to build up its network MMS architecture to be able to handle the expected traffic before it could add this service.

Source: AT&T