Pizza birthed the SMS message
Back in 1984, sitting in a pizzeria in Copenhagen, Matti Makkonen created the SMS message. He was attending a telecoms conference when the inspiration hit. Last month, Makkonen passed away from an illness. But his legacy will live on. He’s been credited as being the “father of SMS”, but he didn’t like the title and thought it was undeserved. As a Finnish engineer and civil servant, he worked on the GSM standard with many other people. He felt he was just one component of a whole and the result of the combined work was SMS as we know it today.
In an interview with the BBC in 2012 he said,
“I did not consider SMS as a personal achievement but as a result of joint efforts to collect ideas and write the specifications of the services based on them.”
Though many people were involved, Makkonen gave credit to Nokia actually for popularising SMS messaging. If they hadn’t built a phone that allowed people to use the service, then obviously no one would ever have known it existed outside the GSM technical community.
It’s interesting to note that the before-mentioned BBC interview happened by text message on the 20th anniversary of SMS. It was in 1992 when Neil Papworth sent the first text message with the words “Happy Christmas” during a Vodaphone Christmas party. He sent the message from a computer, and it was received on an Orbitel 901. It was the first GSM mobile phone (though you’d likely need a large bag of some sort to carry it around in), now made famous as the first to receive an official SMS message.
Getting back to the interview, the reporter asked Makkonen if he had foreseen how popular SMS would become. But to him, SMS wasn’t a separate thing as we think of it today. It was just another feature bundled up into a “revolutionary mobile communications system.” He went on to add it would be “Very useful for quick business needs”.
Many people who report on SMS messaging and the history involving Makkonen point out he was never compensated for the work he did because he hadn’t patented it. Although it seems many felt he deserved something beyond his civil servant or Nokia salary, he never appeared to share those sentiments. He felt he was one of the first to “understand the need and the concept”, but that he hadn’t developed anything patentable.
The BBC interviewer also asked what Makkonen thought of using txtspk. His reply was a firm “No!” Indeed he preferred to use proper Finnish and as many of the 160 characters as necessary. He also added that he thought language could develop because of the shortened length (many linguists agree).
When asked about his vision for SMS in the future, say another 20 years down the road, he wasn’t very specific. But he did say he felt that “convenient to use text messaging will stay forever.” He also suggested that pay per message would also be a thing of the past. While the interview was only in 2012, many mobile carriers now offer unlimited text messages as part of the standard plans. And with SMS integrated into so many apps for smartphones, many people don’t pay for the messages at all. He may be on to something in terms of how the service will evolve in the future (but for now mobile operators charge SMS service providers, like fastsms, for every message sent. When that changes, it’s likely SMS providers will rethink their pricing models too).
It’s sad that Makkonen won’t be a part of the future of SMS and GSM standards, but the idea he conceived while enjoying pizza over 20 years ago is certainly here to stay.
Related Articles
12 Reasons Mobile Messaging is “A Beautiful Thing”
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But could text messaging really be considered beautiful? You might argue that it depends on the messages you get! That’s a valid approach, but I recently found a description of mobile messaging that made me believe it is indeed beautiful, so I thought I’d share it with you.
3 Questions You Need to Ask Before Choosing an SMS Provider
How is a consumer or business to know if the SMS provider they found is good or if they’ll take your money and run? There are lots of things you need to research before choosing a provider, but the following three questions are important ones to help weed out the unreliable ones.
An SMS alert message could have helped Farah and other athletes
More than 450 Million Text Messages Sent by UK Banks in 2013
Death of SMS? Premature indeed.
Start the New Year with one interesting prediction for SMS messaging
SMS Messaging, Recruitment, and Millennials
Everyone wants a steady job with great pay and benefits right? Not so much for millennials. At least according to some research done in the last few years. It’s not that they want bad pay and poor benefits, just that those things aren’t necessarily the most important. But knowing what is important to them, just might make your SMS recruitment messages more successful.
Why SMS Marketing Can Be More Effective Than Mobile Banner Advertising
A recent eMarketer article on the effectiveness of mobile banner advertising reports the main reason people don't click is because they aren't interested in the offer. In fact, only 24% of those surveyed say they clicked on a mobile banner on a website in the last three months.
Fastsms Wins Best SMS Provider Of The Year
For the second year in a row we’ve been selected by Corporate Vision Magazine as the best SMS platform and SMS Service in the UK. We earned those awards by working hard to make the best platform and offer friendly personal service. Read all about it here.
Why a Text Message is Often Better Than an Email or Voice Call
A text message is a very small and condensed piece of communication in contrast to voice messaging or video broadcast. Consequently text messages can get through when network capability is degraded to an extent that makes other options unviable.