25 years since the birth of SMS
4hw.org: what do you use most mobile phones for now? I'm sure everyone will talk about surfing the Internet, chatting, watching videos, etc., but have you neglected one of the most basic functions of mobile phones -- SMS, which is gradually replaced and forgotten in the era of smart phones. However, it still exists as the most basic function of mobile phones. On December 3, this year, the 25th anniversary of the birth of SMS will be followed by Xiaobian Look at the history of SMS development!
Before the birth of mobile Internet, the most commonly used way of text communication was SMS or instant communication on personal computer. According to the latest news from foreign media, December 3 this year marks the 25th anniversary of the birth of SMS. Although in some developing countries, SMS is still an important means of communication, but from the global market, under the impact of mobile chat software, SMS is gradually withdrawing from history.
According to Engadget, 25 years ago, on December 3, 1992, Neil papworth, a communication engineer, sent out the first SMS in human history. At that time, he wrote a sentence "Merry Christmas" on a computer and sent it to Richard Jarvis, an executive of Vodafone, a British mobile operator. Such a small start has gradually changed the way human society communicates and communicates.
It took a long time from the invention of SMS to its popularization. The main reason is that in the 1990s, the coverage of mobile communication and mobile phones was very limited. In addition, the early functions of mobile phones were mainly used for dialing rather than inputting text.
However, there was a more powerful and convenient smartphone, and then SMS began to grow. According to statistics, in 2006, in the United States, the number of mobile phone SMS was 12.5 billion per month, but only a year later, the number of SMS increased to 45 billion per month.
Later, SMS is not only a means of text communication. Some manufacturers have launched SMS based services, such as ordering meals through SMS and getting music content recommendation. Consumers of mobile operators can also adjust their packages or query various consumption content by sending SMS.
Today, twitter, one of the two largest social networks in the world, allows users to send 140 characters, which is based on SMS technology (SMS allows 160 characters). The sharing of short content like Twitter is also popular all over the world.
Not long ago, twitter made adjustments to support 280 characters in English and other languages, expanding the freedom of user communication.
Today, the Internet has entered the era of mobile Internet. Smart phones and 4G mobile communication networks are rapidly popularized in many countries around the world. Mobile chat service has become a popular application. For example, Messenger and WhatsApp, Facebook's mobile chat tools, have more than one billion active users, and wechat, the dominant market in China, is about to exceed one billion.
According to statistics, in July, WhatsApp sent up to 55 billion chat messages every day.
Obviously, the mobile chat service based on traffic is replacing the old paid SMS service in an all-round way (the United States and other countries have realized free and unlimited use of SMS).
In the Chinese market, statistics released by the Ministry of industry and information technology also show that the number of SMS messages sent has declined for a long time. For young people who are accustomed to using mobile chat, sending SMS has become a very strange mobile function.
However, there was no avalanche of text messages. In the era of mobile Internet, some service providers use SMS to verify the user's identity, or send the notification information of Internet service, which makes SMS show a small stable decline trend.
In the UK and other markets, there is also a trend of gradual decline in the number of text messages sent.
Today, in some developing countries around the world, many consumers are still using old function mobile phones. Local telecom companies only provide basic GSM services, and SMS is still a very important way of communication. For example, in the African market, some manufacturers have launched SMS based payment and financial services, which are very popular.
Foreign media pointed out that in some markets, SMS will still exist for a long time, but globally, SMS will gradually disappear along with GSM network.