SMS fuels mobile Internet growth

Early handsets only recognised a phone number. Then phone enhancements identified an email address or Internet link in a message. Today, phones automatically highlight phone numbers, email addresses and Internet links in a SMS. There have also been improvements in the handling any type of website as phones have their own browsers.

Click to access

In the days before the mobile Internet, if a phone was not WAP-compatible, then it could not display content. Now, all you need to do is click on the hyperlink within the SMS to access mobile content.

The mobile entertainment industry has led the way in delivering music, videos and games using SMS hyperlinks. Businesses are catching on to using SMS as a cost-effective and efficient means to deliver content to mobile phone users, download applications, or initiate viral marketing campaigns.

In the latter case, consumers access rich content (such as an advert) via a SMS link and send on the campaign link to their friends. The benefit to the consumer is that the link is sent at the cost of a SMS rather than a MMS.

Good business model

A good example of a business model maximising on the integration of SMS and mobile Internet is Jamble, a South African social networking service.

You access Jamble by sending a SMS to a shortcode. A WAP link is delivered to your phone and you click on it to open a page on the mobile Internet. This WAP page allows you to subscribe to Jamble and begin creating a network of friends, send messages or use instant chat, share photographs and video clips, or download wallpapers and tones. Thereafter, Jamble provides alerts to new messages by sending a SMS with a link.

The cellphone is all about the immediacy and convenience of mobile communications. The integration of SMS and the mobile Internet takes this a step further by providing consumers with a ubiquitous means of accessing mobile content, applications and services.