The first SMS was sent 30 years ago. When will the last one be?


The age of SMS messaging on mobile phones began 30 years ago with the a simple greeting: "Merry Christmas". — Photo: Patrick Pleul/dpa

BERLIN: The age of SMS messaging began 30 years ago with the a simple greeting: "Merry Christmas". Initially ridiculed as something nobody would use, it soon conquered mobile communications – only to be ousted again years later. And yet the SMS is somehow still thriving.

As with many other technical wonders, you can quibble over who came up with the Short Message Service, or SMS, which fired off its first missive on December 3, 1992, with the words "Merry Christmas".

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