Comments on: SMS is King, Heaven and Hell, all at the same time

By: Enquanto uns “deixam” o SMS outros fazem negócios

Enquanto uns “deixam” o SMS outros fazem negócios — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:00:44 +0000

[...] li esta nota falando do SMS: “The King, Heaven and Hell, all at the same time”. Rei para o usuário, céu para operadora e Hell para aqueles que querem contratar o [...]

By: Enquanto uns “matam” o SMS outros fazem negócios « Portabilidade BR

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:31:04 +0000

[...] 19, 2008 · No Comments Ontem li esta nota falando do SMS: “The King, Heaven and Hell, all at the same time”. Rei para o usuário, céu para operadora e Hell para quem quer contratar o [...]

By: Carnival of the Mobilists #137 | mobilejones

Carnival of the Mobilists #137 | mobilejones — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:01:14 +0000

[...] master mobile blogger and developer, C. Enrique Ortiz, “SMS is King, Heaven and Hell all at the Same Time.” Ortiz breaks down the cost of providing an SMS service from the developer’s point of [...]

By: ceo

ceo — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:59:42 +0000

*Sean* Yes, the certifications (and difference between them) and the ongoing support for audits adds to the cost… totally agree that SMS is a great delivery mechanism. Thanks for the comments…

*Larry* I don’t think SMS will die and it is long-lived. But supporting SMS on your server, if not properly planned for, can suck you dry ($). I don’t think, even in enterprises, that email kills SMS, because they are complementary. Note that a hybrid SMS/MobileIM is what I believe the future of handset-based messaging will be on one side, and email on the other — both complementary. Thanks for the comments…

ceo

By: Larry

Larry — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:08:55 +0000

Enrique, good post as always.

I think the death of SMS depends on the platform and the plan. For example, Blackberry usage within an Enterprise almost certainly kills SMS…for what value is an instant message when email covered under the carriers plan is almost as instantaneous?

This argument certainly falls down when a user in a BB only environment tries to communicate outside, to a non-BB user.

Chat also should be a good alternative, covered as well by data plans; again, the issue is commonality, with many different types of chat (are you on AOL or Google Talk?) but only one SMS.

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:17:37 +0000

Right on the money Enrique (pun sort of intended). As an application provider we use SMS as a distribution method in addition to direct downloads and we went through all the same issues you mentioned plus another one – carrier approval. In North America if you want your own short code you need to get it approved, in general, by each carrier individually. The aggregators will help you with it but because its a very subjective process you can end up approved on one carrier but not another and you left scratching your head . The process is pretty inflexible and very slow especially if you don’t fit into one of their ’standard’ uses of SMS so you need to account for that time as well as the costs and the extra work of supporting all the side processes (making sure your optin/optout is valid, all the correct keywords are supported, etc).

The costs certainly add up (we have 3 aggregators to get global coverage and fallbacks) but at the same time there’s no comparing getting a text message with a link you click to download an app vs having to start your mobile browser and type in a url (no matter how short) so you have to support it and you have to include it in your business plan (as you pointed out). Now if you’ll excuse me I have to explain to another carrier that we aren’t sending out jokes for $5 a day over our short code.