Skype, GroupMe and the death of the text message - Aug. 22, 2011

Skype, GroupMe and the death of the text message - Aug. 22, 2011

As I stumbled across this article it struck a chord with me because my husband and I were just discussing how inconvenient communicating via phone is now that I have an iPhone and he has a Blackberry (he will soon be changing) and we have to use text message rather than an integrated instant message on the phone. We haven't had to pay for text messages to each other for four years. Lamenting this we were in search of an app to let us communicate without using text messages. Apparently we are not alone and it is causing some concern for mobile carriers who make a great deal of money via text messages. As the use of smart phones increases the demand for text messages is likely to decrease (or so the trending indicates). This is interesting in its own right but what will be even more interesting to watch in our information age is if there will be a demand for the cost of data to be greatly reduced due to demand and competing carriers.