Texting is 20. The world's first text message was sent on this
day, 3 December, back in 1992 -- but as social networking and IM
apps take off, is the era of the humble text over? 22-year-old
British engineer Neil Papworth sent "Merry Christmas" from his
computer to an Orbitel 901 mobile phone on Vodafone two decades
ago today. Short Message Service was originally seen as useful
for sending notifications of voicemails, but the no-frills
160-character text message soon captured the public imagination.
Celebrating the 20th birthday of the SMS message, phone watchdog
Ofcom reveals that the average Briton sends around 50 texts each
week. And 12-15 year olds reckon they send an average of 193
texts every week. Last year more than 150 billion text messages
were sent in Britain, a number which had tripled in the previous
five years. But 2012 has seen a decline in the number of texts
sent as smart phones give us access to instant messaging apps or
Facebook and Twitter conversations. After all, texts still cost
money (