Talk is cheap, text is cheaper [mobile messaging]

摘要

E-mail was the first killer application for the Internet-nownmessaging is coming to cellphones. How does a software application gonfrom zero to 100 million users in a couple of years? One way is to benbuilt into Windows. Another is for the world's largest cellphonenmanufacturers to make it a standard. That has not happened yet, but it'snabout to. Three titans of the mobile world, Nokia, Motorola, andnEricsson, are behind a developing standard for instant messaging (IM)nbetween cellphones. Called Wireless Village, it was approved in Februarynas Draft 1.0 by a consortium that includes more than 150 equipmentnmanufacturers, and could be implemented in new cellphones by early fall.nMeanwhile, a slightly different messaging mode, short message servicen(SMS), has already crossed the Atlantic from Europe. In recent months,nthe leading US wireless carriers have started to promote the service.nThis could be good news for investors and for the carriers themselves-songood, in fact, that it is said the abbreviation really stands forn"significant money streams". European mobile carriers are reporting thatnSMS accounts for as much as 9 percent of revenues and 20 percent ofnprofits