My own prediction: when everyone has multimedia mail, something like 60
percent of the mail will still be "plain text". The next 30 percent, or
so, will be "rich text" -- i.e. it will use fonts, etc. Only ten
percent will use anything beyond that. However, that 10% of the
messages will generate something like 90% of the bandwidth, and will
often (though not always) be perceived as being of enormous added value
...
I'd guess more like 70-20-10 or 70-25-5, but see no reason to
disagree with this analysis.
And, as we've discussed privately, I do worry about the bandwidth
implications of all of this, especially for people who pay by the
kilopacket to receive mail. It is not an 822 topic, much less an XXXX
one, but I think that we are going to find ourselves in serious need to
transport mechanisms that make "do you want something of size Z, whose
subject is 'aaaaa' from...." transactions easy. And the user and his or
her agents have to get involved in this, because it is going to be
source and subject dependent. With a "collect" phone call, I can always
hang up if the conversation becomes more tedious than I'm willing to pay
for. But...
--john