[MW Forums]

URL Manager Pro developer Alco Blom has released the first public beta version of SMS Mac, a plug-in for Apple's Address Book utility that lets users send a Short Message Service (SMS) message to any cell phone number in the world over the Internet. You do not need a mobile number yourself in order for SMS Mac to work. more

[Nobody]

I mean, technologically speaking...
Same as talking with Skype, for instance.

[69powerbook69]

Am I reading this right? Is the developer charging us a fee and THEN a fee for each message over 50?? That's robbery.

[gunner1954]

At one time iChat could send SMS text to cell phones by simply using + and the ten digit number. However, I've noticed that I can no longer send to my AT&T/Cingular service (nor my wife's and daughter's) via iChat A/V. Was this function eliminated from iChat, or are the cell phone carriers blocking access from non-cell and Internet sources?

[benpoole]

All phone networks charge for using their infrastructure to send SMS messages, so naturally that charge will be passed on. Hardly controversial!

[jmincey]

I've always felt there should never be a charge for sending an SMS from a web browser or other software from a computer to a cell phone (or mobile wireless device). Nor should there be any charge for receiving text messages on a cell phone. Instead the charge should be applied whenever text messages are sent FROM a cell phone to any other location (regardless of what that location may be).
Wireless companies should adopt this pricing policy because it will result in a net increase in their revenue from text messaging. I have for years sent free SMS messages to friends in South Africa and they have replied many times via their cell phones. But as soon as the web sites (and wireless telecom companies) begin to charge for this service, I cease using it and instantly all revenue ceases as well. And I feel sure I'm not unqiue in this respect.
Bandwidth is bandwidth and data traffic is data traffic -- I realize this of course. But if wireless companies permit the free use of their web sites, and especially if users don't have to go to a different web site for each carrier, this will encourage the increased use of SMS (especially in the United States where it really hasn't caught on the way it has in Europe and other parts of the world).
Even if there must be a charge for computer-based SMS, Americans eschew metered pricing for the most part. We prefer a flat rate. I suspect no flat rate option exists in the SMS world because the technology first took hold in Europe where the long-established practice of metered pricing in traditional telecommunications then was applied to text messaging as well. But in North America the pricing for nearly every kind of telecommunications is a flat rate, and many people simply will not use any SMS product which doesn't give them that option.
And, as always, it's about options. To "pay as you go" is indeed great for some people -- depending on how they use the service. But this is no argument against having a flat rate plan at least as an OPTION.
I can appreciate that developers of SMS software may well be stuck between a rock and a hard place by the policies of the wireless carriers they support. This is why we need someone with the clout of a Steve Jobs to champion another approach, and that ain't gonna happen because this is a fringe technology and small potatoes. So it appears we are stuck with this myopic pricing scheme -- at least until the wireless companies wake up and recognize the large untapped market which remains for their services.

[benpoole]

Re free messages from iChat, I think that was an option provided by AOL, which was subsequently withdrawn -- presumably due to cost. There used to be a lot of websites which allowed free SMS message sending, but these all disappeared a few years back, although some remained on a paid-for basis.

[lhudd]

I believe it still works. Unless it got canned within the past couple months, it's still active. At least to Tmobile phones.

[Harima]

I use Verizon and I can SMS from iChat. You have to press +1 then the area code and cell number. Hope that it works for you.

[jlfish]

Am I the only one who sees this as a total waste? You can already send a message to practically any text-enabled cell phone from your Mac (or any other Internet connected device). I don't know of any cell company that does not offer a means of using e-mail to send a message to a cell phone.