[VoiceOps] SMS apps, providers, and peers

[Peter Beckman]

On Tue, 8 Dec 2009, Alex Balashov wrote:

> In many cases, it's important to ignore actual-day "reality" and prepare for 
> what's coming, not what's here.

  So what are you preparing for?  Do you already know what's coming, and
  you're preparing for it?

  Hell, I'm not even sure what _I_ am doing next year, much less the rest of
  the world when it comes to text messaging communications.  I do know that
  SMS is growing now, is in active use now, and for me to put some effort
  into building a messaging infrastructure surrounding my VoIP service makes
  sense.  If I do it intelligently, then the messaging infrastructure I
  build now can support SMS now and whatever comes next later.

  Most of the smartphones can't run a messaging app in the background, and
  if it can, which one should it?  The only thing all handsets and all
  carriers support for public messaging is SMS.  Until the phone can
  natively and in a built-in way support other messaging platforms that are
  supported by all handsets and carriers, SMS is here for a while.  Just
  because it sucks and there are better things out there doesn't mean it's
  going away.  Look at Beta vs VHS -- better did not win.

  I believe it is impossible for anyone to know what will replace SMS, or
  even if SMS will be replaced entirely in the next 2-20 years.  If you do,
  don't tell us!  Build it yourself, and wait for the money to roll in,
  because you'll be the only provider offering it.

  In the meantime, building SMS capabilities into VoIP DIDs is a service
  that can be sold now, and my gut says for a good long while (5+ years).

Beckman
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Peter Beckman                                                  Internet Guy
beckman at angryox.com                                 http://www.angryox.com/
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