| Winston Churchill had said, "Broadly speaking, the | | | | of messaging services to embed multimedia |
| short words are the best..." The world today abides | | | | components like images, audio, and video in their |
| by his words. So people condense their thoughts, | | | | messages. It is a widely-used medium to deliver news |
| views, and sentiments into pithy messages, | | | | and entertainment-related content. In 2008, there |
| sometimes accentuated by images and videos, and | | | | were 1.3 billion users of this service in the world and |
| send these across to friends and acquaintances. | | | | together they created and sent 50 billion multimedia |
| There are varied kinds of messaging services that | | | | messages. |
| provide the means to communicate. | | | | MMS adheres to the technological standards laid |
| Short Message Service (SMS) | | | | down by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). However, it |
| The SMS is the most widely used of all messaging | | | | has evolved along with the development of |
| services in the world. The technology enables mobile | | | | supportive technologies such as Java, Bluetooth, |
| phone or landline subscribers to communicate using | | | | Mobile Station Application Execution Environment |
| short textual messages. There are at present more | | | | (MexE), and location-based service systems. |
| than 3 billion people around the world, comprising | | | | Java Message Service (JMS) |
| approximately 75% of all mobile phone users, who | | | | The JMS is built on the standards set down for |
| use the SMS to keep in touch, convey news and | | | | Enterprise Messaging or Messaging Oriented |
| information, schedule appointments, and even forge | | | | Middleware (MOM). This is the prevalent technology |
| new and sever old relationships. | | | | employed to transfer critical business-related |
| The SMS had its roots in the radio telegraphy | | | | information and event news within an enterprise. Like |
| technology and initially adhered to the standards set | | | | all other messaging services, the JMS also sees |
| by the Global System for Mobile Communications | | | | continuous innovations, most aligned with |
| (GSM). So, text messages at the inception of the | | | | developments in the Java 2, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) |
| SMS technology were limited to 160 characters. Since | | | | platform. |
| then, the service has developed to bring other mobile | | | | The development of 3G mobile services and its |
| technologies like ANSI CDMA networks, satellite and | | | | consequent adoption by the various messaging |
| landline networks, and Digital AMPS under its aegis. | | | | services have ushered several benefits for the users |
| Multimedia Message Service (MMS) | | | | like faster connectivity and greater content |
| The MMS improves over the SMS and enables user | | | | adaptation. |