After 10 years in mobile messaging and having run 160c for 9 years, the time has come to say goodbye and cease publication of the 160characters.org website and newsletter.
Although SMS itself is 17 years old, the mobile messaging industry is not a great deal more than ten years old and the first players such as Derdak and mBlox have been celebrating their 10 years in the business. Over these ten years mobile messaging, and SMS in particular, has become an intergral part of modern life. In spite of continued predictions of its demise over the years, SMS continues to defy gravity and its use grows as users find more ways in can be used.
Something that is installed on almost every phone shipped worldwide will always be very hard to compete with unless it has something utterly compelling to offer. Primarily a mobile phone is a communicatioins device and text messaging is a key feature of that. So the future of mobile messaging in all its various forms continues to offer much potential.
Today two thirds of the population of the planet have a mobile phone and all of them can both make a receive phone calls and send and receive text messages. The world has never been so closely connected. The full implications of this I believe have still not fully been grasped.
Thanks
I would like to thank the many people, event partners, advertisers, award entrants and of course subscribers and paid members who have supported 160characters over the years. There are too many individuals to list here but in particular I would like to thank Andrew Bud, mBlox; Mike Short. MDA & O2; Robert Hamiliton, Google; Helen Keegan Beep marketing and Rachel Graves at theinternetteam.ltd.uk.
The decision to end writing for 160c is mixed with a certain amount of sadness and relief! I plan to arrange a farewell event in London in March, so if you'd like to sponsor that event please get in touch.
Community Focus
My focus now will be on helping communities respond to the many challenges we face as a society of Peak Oil, Climate Change, global ecomonics based on growth. This will be primarily through the Transition movement which I have been involved with since its early days. My first priority now is completion of a book I am co-author of: TRANSITION COMMUNITIES: a pocket guide.
If you are interested to take over 160character.org please get in touch!
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