Madness

Verizon Wireless hit a new benchmark for SMS: 10 billion texts were exchanged this past June. It was just last September that the 5 billion mark was hit! Doesn’t anybody talk anymore?

Also, MMS usage doubled during the same period as 200 million picture and video messages were exchanged. Interestingly, I’m told by VZW insiders that MMS adoption and growth is exceeding the rates set by SMS.

Now, the big MMS news is AT&T’s nationwide launch of its Video Share service in over 160 markets. Available exclusively over the AT&T 3G wireless network, it is the first app to use the company’s Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) platform.

The new service enables users to generate streaming video over their handsets providing new meaning to reality TV. Of course this kind of thing is la norme in Asia and Europe, but hopefully, this development marks the beginning of more such advancements in the United States.

Speaking of which, the CTIA shines some light on the state of the industry on this side of the pond in several key market scenarios. Seems we talk more and our price per minute is significantly lower than in the rest of the world. In terms of the number and types of wireless handsets available, the U.S. outpaces everyone as well. Download the report to get the full picture.

These stats, while interesting, only point out why VZW’s 10 billion text messages seem fairly insignificant when compared to global SMS traffic. Internationally, in the 1st Quarter of 2007, 620 billion messages were exchanged.

With the exception of Hong Kong there is no place where talk is as cheap as it is in the U.S. And, despite our steady progress, that’s why we’ll never catch up to the rest of the world when it comes to the use of mobile messaging. But that’s really not such a bad thing.

Wi-Fi is hot again. And this time it’s the device that is generating the heat. But in a good, way.

T - Mobile, Nokia and Apple have all just recently released devices that enable their users to access the web using Wi-Fi.

In terms of how people will interact in the future today’s Nokia - Skype announcement is the most exciting. Streaming data, over a mobile internet connection, enables peer - to - peer chatting and should ultimately push the usage of mobile video.

SMS is the killer app for mobile because it extends the basic premise of any phone - mobile or fixed: It connects people.

The mobile video chat use case is every bit, if not more, compelling. IM - ing, text-ing, even talking on the phone are all powerful ways to communicate. But connecting eye - to - eye is almost always more meaningful.

If - and this is a big if - mobile video chat can ever be priced so the average American can afford it, the carriers will make a lot (more) money selling data services. And if they don’t reduce their data plan pricing, there are many Wi-Fi providers lurking on the edges that will take a significant piece of business away.

These lost customers will be awfully hard to get back behind the wall once they have tasted freedom. This is good stuff. Especially if this helps to spur the development of a national Wi-Fi network. But that’s not really what gets me going. Seeing something is living it.

I always measure my gut on a mobile application by whether or not my kids would use it or not. There’s not a doubt in my mind they would use mobile video chat if they could.

It might even reduce the 1200 + texts my oldest daughter sends a month.

We’re not superstitious … it just happened that we decided to launch madapp.com today. But, we have to admit, launching the site on “trip sevens” does make us smile.

The site is more or less an introduction to some of the work we - a group of IT, web, wireless, media & marketing veterans - have been involved in over the last seven years.

Over the coming weeks and months the site will reflect our efforts as we go about fulfilling our vision of creating a set of unique products and services that simplify the process of communicating with one another via multiple formats and platforms.

Just as our culture, and the ways in which we choose to communicate continue to evolve, so will madapp. As communicators, we’ve never been bound by a single media type. As technologists, we’re always looking for a better, more efficient way of connecting; of getting the job done.

We know it may sound naive, but we do believe that the Internet, has changed the very foundation of how we relate to each other and the world around us. The almost instantaneous sharing of data across cultural practices and economic disciplines, without regard to time, place - or device - has made us richer and smarter than ever before.

And we feel lucky to be in the thick of it.

Now, I’m a Mac user and an Apple devotee. I bought a Mac Plus in 86. Its graphical interface and that very cool thing called a mouse made computer technology accessible for me. A commitment to a simple and elegant user experience continues to be an Apple hallmark. The iPhone clearly demonstrates this.

The issue is the network the iPhone runs on. AT&T’s EDGE network is pokey at best and at my house, unavailable. I live in the Bay area - Marin County. Calls don’t just get dropped in my neighborhood, they are never established.

I just have to believe that there is a plan in the works to fix this. It just isn’t Steve’s way not to want to dominate and a telecommunications product, no matter how sexy and well engineered, is only as good as its weakest link.

So I’ll wait it out. If nothing happens, then I just might buy that very sleek Prada phone from LG when it comes out later this year. I understand that my current carrier, Verizon Wireless, will offer it up. I’m sure it will be cheaper than the iPhone as well. right…

Not sure if the LG phone will ever do what the iPhone currently does, but, sooner or later, all the OEMs will be impacted by the iPhone’s beautiful form factor.

But just think what the iPhone will be like then…