When Apple introduced their iMessage At&t said that it would cut into At&t’s text message revenue. Everyone thought At&t was being greedy, but it looks like they were right. A new study done says that this year though 3 quarters texting has dipped 2%. With iMessage, Facebook Messager and Kik smartphone users have found loopholes to send text messages.
It’s not that people are any less connected or firing off any fewer messages. They’re just doing it in different ways. One of the biggest culprits is indeed iMessage, which operates exactly as text messages do, but bypasses the carrier entirely for Apple to Apple communications. Another culprit is Facebook’s Messenger app. It turns Facebook’s desktop IM feature into a very SMS-like communication method, again without having to route messages through the mobile provider.
I can totally see how this would be the case. Not long after iOS 5 launched, I personally found that a huge percentage of texts I was receiving were actually iMessages, something iOS designates using labels within its Messages app on the iPhone. It just so happened that enough of my friends and people I texted with on a regular basis were using iPhones, so our exchanges were converted into iMessages. It was enough to allow me to eliminate my ultimate texting plan for a cheaper option. Exactly what the carriers didn’t want.
