It's astounding; yesterday I learnt that it was the 20th birthday of texting/SMS and wrote a short blog post to recognise the occasion. Today, I discovered that texting reached its peak and is "in decline", albeit slowly:
The main reason for this apparent decline is because of the increased use in apps on smartphones that are cheaper texting services than SMS. Other reasons cited include Twitter and Facebook, but I don't think that either of these are suitable replacements for texting: with Facebook, both users need to be online simultaneously to be able to communicate with one another in real-time, and with Twitter, same again but the conversations are public...clearly not ideal for a discussion intended for quick discussion between two people.
A text is usually the fastest way to contact someone: it's far more likely someone will have their phone with them than be connected to the Internet; even with a smartphone there's no guarantee that the person will use their device to always be on the Web. Despite any supposed "decline", I don't think that texting/SMS is going anywhere anytime soon: it may be old, and can cost up to 15 cents/pence per text on pay-as-you-go, but it's quick and simple.
No comments:
Post a Comment