Self proclaimed “SMS Expert” Sheri Wells has enough cash to issue a press release that hit the wires this morning wishing SMS a happy 25th birthday. According to her the technology was invented in a Vodafone laboratory, but there are quite a few Nokia engineers who would question that claim. She goes on to say the first SMS was “Happy Christmas” and was sent on December 3, 1992 by Neil Papworth to Richard Jarvis.
Initially text messaging was free because operators didn’t have the billing infrastructure in place to charge consumers. That’s partially the reason why it exploded. After text messaging started costing consumers precious pennies then usage dipped, but as we know today it most certainly climbed back up.
In the year 2000 the average number of text messages sent per subscriber was 35. Today it’s over 10 times that, 357. Again I’m having trouble believing these numbers because they don’t mention a specific country. As for America, SMS only took off in the early 00s because there was a period where cross operator text messaging didn’t work. How stupid could the people running the networks have been to not work together? Email was that dumb initially too, but standards fixed that.
While I bemoan the United States for how they price for text messages, insisting that incoming SMS messages are paid for by the person receiving them, I do have to admit that the $20/month plans that give consumers unlimited SMS and even MMS are quite attractive. I forget which operator started the unlimited everything package, I’m leaning towards Sprint because there was a time where they were practically begging for customers, but now pretty much everyone is doing it.
How often do you text? While grocery shopping this morning I sent out about 5 to several friends. It’s addicting, unobtrusive, and lets people respond to you when they have the time. And unlike email, that 160 character limit makes people condense their thoughts down to the purest form.
Love it.
[Via: Textually]
[Reminder: Don’t text and drive]