It’s here.  That’s right folks, Apple officially rolled out an update today for the iPhone that enables multimedia messaging.  It’s available now, so jack in your iPhone and get your download on.

Is it too early to say FINALLY?!  Three weeks from tomorrow on Friday the 25th, iPhone 3G and 3GS owners will get the 1st stab at sending picture and video texts to a recipient of their choice.

The reason AT&T claims this has taken so long is that they wanted to make double sure that their network systems were in check so that all iPhone users have a stellar and glitch free experience from launch.  That seems honest.

An update will arrive sometime on the 25th and after you get it installed you will be able to send picture and video texts.  With no official date set for tethering, it will be interesting to see how well this launch goes.

And now a word from AT&T:

An Update on iPhone MMS for our Mobility Customers We know many of our iPhone customers are eager for an update on our rollout schedule for Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS). We’ve been working for the past several months to prepare our systems and network to ensure the best possible experience with MMS when it launches – and that launch date is: September 25 for iPhone 3G and 3GS customers. MMS will be enabled through a software update on that day.

We know that iPhone users will embrace MMS. The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone’s multimedia capabilities required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One. We appreciate your patience as we work toward that end.

We’re riding the leading edge of smartphone growth that’s resulted in an explosion of traffic over the AT&T network. Wireless use on our network has grown an average of 350 percent year-over-year for the past two years, and is projected to continue at a rapid pace in 2009 and beyond. The volume of smartphone data traffic the AT&T network is handling is unmatched in the wireless industry. We want you to know that we’re working relentlessly to innovate and invest in our network to anticipate this growth in usage and to stay ahead of the anticipated growth in data demand, new devices and applications for years to come.

We thank you for your business and look forward to keeping you updated on our initiatives.

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Yet another iPhone firmware update and still no MMS.  Honestly, at this point, MMS is so moot (and expensive) I don’t really care.  Regardless,  Mobispine still beckons the calls of millions of tweens and teens – not to mention the money – and plans to produce a native app for the iPhone that will enable MMS.  With all the recent app rejections, Mobispine is circumventing the Apple app approval team and plans to sell it directly to carriers who will subsequently sell it via the the iTunes store, or some other sorted method that has yet to be revealed.

Official announcement here

[iLounge]