Startling news from the world of telecoms. In 2012 the number of daily OTT messages to and from mobile phones overtook the number of SMSs for the first time.
For those of us who do not have a GCSE in information technology, that means so-called over-the-top systems like BlackBerry Messenger and Apple Messenger are being used more than texts sent through mobile phone networks.
In part this is a reflection of austerity. Services like BBM are “free” to people who use those devices or who hook up on Wi-Fi to use one of the other free networks.
Even if you have loads of texts in your monthly bundle or if you are still as pay as you go, you still feel that you are paying for SMS.
It is more than 20 years since the first SMS was sent and it has been one of the major drivers of mobile phone companies’ revenues for much of that time.
OTT messaging only really began with BlackBerry in 2007 but has taken just five years to get into the lead.
So is SMS doomed? No, say the experts at Informa. It will continue to grow because not everyone is on the same kind of handset and a BBM person has to text their friend with an iPhone. But its rate of growth will be much slower.
There is some hope that more business uses for texting will come along. But the odds are that within five years there will be yet another way of sending messages which is neither SMS nor OTT.
We will just have to learn another set of initials.
