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Future of Messaging
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Short message services are developing very rapidly throughout the world. By mid-2004
texts were being sent at a rate of 500 billion messages per annum. At an average
cost of USD 0.10 per message, this generates revenues in excess of 50 billion for
mobile telephone operators and represents close to 100 text messages for every person
in the world. Growth has been rapid; in 2001, 250 billion short messages were sent,
in 2000 just 17 billion. SMS is particularly popular in Europe, Asia (excluding
Japan and Korea) and Australia. Popularity has grown to a sufficient extent that
the term texting (used as a verb meaning the act of cell phone users sending short
messages back and forth) has entered the common lexicon. In China, SMS is very popular,
and has brought service providers large profit (18 billion short messages were sent
in 2001-2002.
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Short messages are particularly popular amongst young urbanites. In many markets,
the service is comparatively cheap. The most frequent texters are found in south-east
Asia. Europe follows next behind Asia in terms of the popularity of texting. SMS
is also typically an opt-in service in the United States-thus sending a message
is much less a guarantee of receipt than in other countries. However the recent
addition of AT&T-powered SMS voting on the television program American Idol
has introduced many Americans to SMS, and usage is on the rise. The similar popular
show in India gave platform and fame to new entrants through the voting by sms on
popular TV channel Indian Idol in India.
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In addition to SMS voting, a different phenomenon has risen in more cell phone saturated
countries. In Finland some TV channels began "SMS Chat", which involved sending
short messages to a phone number, and the messages would be shown on TV a while
later. Chats are always moderated, which prevents sending harmful material to the
channel. The craze soon became popular and evolved into games, first slow-paced
quiz and strategy games. After a while, faster paced games were designed for television
and SMS control. Games tend to involve registering one's nickname, and after that
sending short messages for controlling a character on screen.
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Text messaging is also popular in Japan. However, it is known by different names
depending on the mobile service. With NTT DoCoMo, it is known as "i-mode mail."
With AU, it is known as "C-Mail." Mobile e-mail is usually the norm when sending
messages between phones with different services, but between phones using the same
service, text messaging is more prevalent.
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A few widely publicized speed contests have been held between expert Morse code
operators and expert SMS users (see references). Morse code has consistently won
the contests, leading to speculation that cellphone manufacturers may eventually
build a Morse code interface into cellphones. The interface would automatically
translate the Morse code input into text so that it could be sent to any SMS-capable
cellphone so therefore the receiver of the message need not know Morse code to read
it. Other speculated applications include taking an existing assistive application
of Morse code and using the vibrating alert feature on the cellphone to translate
short messages to Morse code for silent, hands free "reading" of the incoming messages.
Several cellphones already have informative audible Morse code ring tones and alert
messages.
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SMS is widely used for delivering premium content such as news alerts, financial
information, logos and ringtones. Such messages are also known as premium-rated
short messages (PSMS). The subscribers are charged extra for receiving this premium
content, and the amount is typically split with the mobile network operator and
the content provider (VASP) dividing the income either through revenue share or
a fixed transport fee.
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Premium short messages are also increasingly being used for "real-world" services.
For example, some vending machines now allow payment by sending a premium-rated
short message, so that the cost of the item bought is added to the user's phone
bill. An increasing trend towards spamming cell phone users through SMS has prompted
cellular service carriers to take steps against the practice, before it becomes
a widespread problem. No major spamming incidents involving SMS have been reported
as of October 2003, but the existence of cell-phone spam has already been noted
by industry watchdogs, including Consumer Reports magazine.
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