SMS on the way out?

P990_PIU_on_the_move2.jpgAccording to research firm Gartner, SMS – which turned 15 this year – is on the way out and will eventually be replaced by mobile email.

“Once email becomes available more or less free of charge by default on your mobile handset, people will gravitate to that rather than just continuing to use SMS,” Simpson said.

I’m dubious this will be the case, though. While email access from a mobile phone will indeed become more popular, there’ll still be a fair few people that won’t want to get disturbed by email on their phone. And considering the typical subject matter of SMS (“wat u up 2?” “watz 4 dinner?” “will b home l8”) where you expect a near-immediate reply, I just don’t see that sort of thing happening over email. For SMS, The Days Are Numbered [SMH]