Can Twitter Kill SMS?
One could only hope. Why? First, allow me to rant for a moment about SMS, the biggest racket in the cellular phone industry, in my opinion. This particularly holds true for those of us already paying a monthly premium for unlimited data access. An SMS transmission is nothing more than data – packets, bits and bytes. Billshrink.com has figured that SMS is actually 412,500 timesmore expensive than, let’s call it, vanilla flavored data. Essentially, we are not paying for the bandwidth—we pay for the convenience.
With this secret knowledge, one can only assume this is why Steve Jobs and Co. avoided the implementation of MMS for two generations of the iPhone operating system. Their position: Why not just email a photo? You have unlimited data and a slick operating system! Don’t pay the man! Well, this ideal eventually crippled under pressures from customers that must interface with friends and family on ‘less robust’ smart phones. MMS support is now part of the forthcoming iPhone 3.0 operating system. +1 for the man.
Back to the topic at hand. Three days ago Apple rolled out an AP News application for developers to test the new Push Notification Service (another addition to OS 3.0). Briefly, this new service allows third-party applications to send real-time alerts to the end-user similarly to the functionality of Push Mail services like Microsoft Exchange and Blackberry Enterprise Server. For instance, you have notifications enabled in the Facebook app, a friend comments on your Wall, an instant notification is sent similar to a text message. Of course, I installed the application without hesitation. A few hours passed and I heard the subtle buzz that I was certain was an SMS message. Nope, the AP News app alerted me that Congress sent the credit card regulation bill to President Obama.
Immediately a light bulb went off in my head. I envisioned my favorite iPhone Twitter application (Tweetie) sending me notifications this way. Brilliant! A split second after my micro-epiphany the ideal was shattered by the realization that Twitter, in its current form, cannot deliver segmented messages. My modest following of 227 folks would be served up unfiltered like a synapse tap on the subconscious of a schizophrenic web designer. And my precious iPhone would turn into a noisy box of hate. My dreams of a useful Twitter are lost, time to point fingers.
Twitter, by design, is nothing more than a linear stream of 140 characters. In its current form you are unable to group, filter or segment follower’s tweets. Yes, some third-party applications like Tweetdeck used API hacks to accomplish this task, only to the detriment of your computer’s RAM and end-user sanity setting up the same groups on multiple machines and mobile devices. One can only hope this functionality is in the cards for Twitter’s future.
To axe SMS your Grandmother needs to be on Twitter, not just Oprah. She needs a phone service that “Comes with Twitter.” And, you need the ability to add Grandma to a “Friends and Family” grouping in Twitter so you can separate her from your geek tribe (who you also value dearly).
My Ideal world is coming together.
Grandma and my best (real-life) pals are in a group that is enabled to push notifications to my Twitter flavored phone of choice. My favorite basketball team is tweeting play-by-play updates and I can momentarily opt-in to the Push Stream and get live game updates. My latest (virtual) pal is live blogging from the latest and greatest conference I cannot afford to attend… you get the point!
If this were a reality today, I would immediately shave $120 off my annual phone expenses.
This idea is not outside the realm of possibility. The demographic of Twitter users is broadening by the moment. I cannot go a day without hearing a talking head on television direct me to their Twitter stream. As a communications tool, Twitter is here to stay. However, it overlaps with too many other services—SMS, email, instant messaging, Facebook Status’. Somebody has to go and I declare the inevitable demise of SMS.