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When will Instant Messaging kill Text Messaging on Phones?

K

Khryz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 7, 2007
940
1
So I just got my iPhone 3G Sunday and texting people looks just like iChat .. so I think I'm IM'ing people even though I'm not.

Texting obviously costs a good amount of money if you send dozens and dozens of texts a day (since it's so easy on the iPhone), when do you think the iPhone will have iChat, and when do you think all phones will have AIM or some sort of IM client so that everyone can basically IM each other all day on their phones and text messaging will be dead?

As more phones like the iPhone come out it seems like it'll be more attractive to provide IM services over texting.

What do you all think?
 
NDimichino said:
When instant messenger clients can run all day long in the background, but even then, probably never.
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What's the big deal with an IM client running all day long? I don't see how you can say "never" considering how far phones have come in the past several years.
 
Why not?

Money. Period.

Unless of course you start paying for instant messaging. Why do you think they charge so much for text messaging? $5.00 for 200 text? Come on....teenagers text that in the first hour of the day. People started using text messaging to keep from using their minutes so they wouldn't go over. The cell companies saw that and capitalized on it, raising the prices drastically over the last few years. In 2000 there were an average of 17 billion text messages sent. In 2004 that number rose to 500 billion.

So, what does that force the consumer to do? You guessed it...commit to an unlimited text plan. If you have teenage children, you have to have unlimited text messages unless you stand over them and threaten them so they wont go over. Its a well known economic principal that companies that receive a monthly payment from customers are more lucrative when compared to companies of the same size that sell a product.

In other words, they want your money coming in each month...every month. That guarantees longevity.
 
Khryz said:
What's the big deal with an IM client running all day long? I don't see how you can say "never" considering how far phones have come in the past several years.
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I have no big problem with them running in the background (besides battery issues), Apple seems to.

And yes, I say never because you then would have to rely on everyone using these messenger clients instead of just texting someone. It would take an effort from everyone, it just doesn't seem realistic in the near future.
 
If everyone that you text with, replaces their texts with IMs, and when Apple gets around to releasing push notification, then maybe...

Both of those things have to happen first.
 
Texting doesn't require anything other than a cellphone. You can text anyone, anywhere, at any time, and be 99% certain they'll receive the message. IMing needs a compatible phone, a data plan, and both the sending and receiving person to be running the IM program. IMing will never replace texting.
 
i'll never use IM over SMS.

Anyone can be on AIM and you don't know if they're actually there or not. I leave my AIM on all day and half the time i don't even remember to put up an away message. Also, there's no guarantee that the person will notice/hear your IM (especially since most people i know turn off the annoying IM sounds completely).

Most people are connected to their phone ALL the time, and all phones will vibrate/sound to let you know you have a message.

I have AIM on my iPhone and RARELY ever open it. I only do if i happen to be having a conversation with someone on AIM on my iMac and want to leave the room, then I grab my iPhone and take it with me to wherever i was going.

This is why SMS > IM.
 
SMS is kinda better than IM on phones, mainly due to the severe lack of IM on phones. But SMS costs way too much. Twenty cents per message? Twenty bucks for unlimited? Start with giving every phone 200 free sms messages and then unlimited for like $10 and then we'll talk. For now, I just use a few texts since they come with my original iPhone plan. AT&T is uber stupid for taking those away while jacking the price up $10.
 
I can agree that SMS is better than Im clients right now. But ever since i saw that AT&T moved the prices from 10 cents to 15 cents. Then 15 cents to 20 cents per text message, i try to use AIM for all my text messages since its free, but it gets kinda annouying sometimes since theres no push, so i have to keep the aim app on so i dont get charged for the receiving text.

APPLE GIVE US PUSH NOTIFICATIONS ALREADY SO I CAN TEXT FOR FREE WITHOUT HASSLES!!!
 
AIM at least does not require the other person to have it. You can send an instant message to their mobile number. It costs them a text but for you its sent through data. There are videos all over youtube explaining how its basically free text messaging, provided you have a data plan.
 
Here in Portugal texts are not as expensive. Most plans are PAYG. In my plan I have 1500 texts every week for people who are on the same carrier as I am. If they're not on the same carrier texts cost 6 cents. And you only pay for the texts you send, not for the texts you receive.
 
I've never fully comprehended how someone could need unlimited text messaging. I only have the 1500 per month plan because I use about 500 texts per month and even then it seems like I'm constantly responding to texts from my nieces.

If I utilized the full 1500 I don't know how I would ever get any work done or respond to forum posts. :) The whole day would be punctuated by constant messages. For the heavy texters, how do you manage that? When you're in a meeting does your boss let you text all the way through?
 
barkomatic said:
I've never fully comprehended how someone could need unlimited text messaging. I only have the 1500 per month plan because I use about 500 texts per month and even then it seems like I'm constantly responding to texts from my nieces.

If I utilized the full 1500 I don't know how I would ever get any work done or respond to forum posts. :) The whole day would be punctuated by constant messages. For the heavy texters, how do you manage that? When you're in a meeting does your boss let you text all the way through?
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Wow...then you should talk to the people around these forums who claim 20,000 or more texts per month. Yes that's right, about 40 an hour if you sleep 8 hours a night. #1...why? #2...what else do they do? #3...i wonder if they know that there is no prize
 
I wish AT&T would adopt an unlimited "in" text plan on the iphone similiar to Verizon. I saved a ton on messages when I was with them.
 
zachplaysguitar said:
AIM at least does not require the other person to have it. You can send an instant message to their mobile number. It costs them a text but for you its sent through data. There are videos all over youtube explaining how its basically free text messaging, provided you have a data plan.
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I never thought of this. I could see how this could be a life saver for people without unlimited texts but I have unlimited text messaging on my family plan for $30 a month for all 5 of us so I don't mind.
 
I won't use IM over text ever. None of my friends ever get on their AIM accounts anymore, so I don't either. While I was literally signed on for days on end in high school, I don't think I've signed on in about 2 years now, simply because nobody else is ever on! Besides, most of my friends don't have phones with instant messaging, so text messages are just easier.

When I have a job and am in front of a computer all day, I will probably use IM quite a bit, but I don't have much use for it now.
 
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