It has become so common nowadays, no one even bothers to notice. But the fact is, the good ol’ SMS, one of the world’s most used communication services has just turned 20. Back in 1992, when cellphones were the size of bricks and there were no keyboards on them, a young British Engineer, Neil Papworth typed “Merry Christmas” on to his computer screen and did something people even now consider geeky (You know, sending an SMS from a PC).
He sent it to Vodafone’s Richard Jarvis who was back then using an Orbitel 901 Cellular handset – top of the line stuff during that age. That was the text of the first ever SMS message sent across a mobile network.
21 years and trillions of text messages later, it seems SMS is still going strong- albeit there has been a dip in its usage of late. But the volumes are still so large, it will take some time before anything would replace it.
While it might have had its origins in the early 90’s it was only after the year 2000 that text messaging really took off. From a few thousand messages back in the 90’s, it is estimated that at least 8 trillion SMS’ were sent in 2011. That translates to an astounding 15 million messages each minute! That is staggering growth from its initial heydays. SMS services also accounted for $114 billion in global revenues in the year 2010! In fact, many cite the slow setting up of billing mechanisms by telecom companies for being the reason why SMS took some time to become a mainstream communications form. Otherwise, it would have been even bigger by now.
For many youngsters of today, life without SMS texting would be a nightmare! Thanks to very affordable plans, even with the advent of other messaging services, SMS continues to be a rage. Filipinos are widely believed to be the most prolific SMS users with the average user there sending 27 SMS’ each day.
Anyway, when you send a ubiquitous text message the next time, you might want to take a few moments and think how different your life would have been without it. Also, do you think SMS would be around in the next 10 years?
