Laura Rooke:

davidc:

Interestingly, when i was in the states Beepers were still massive

 

I'm not sure that this is true now - how long ago was this?

I remember when my daughter was in middle school which is about 10 years ago - kids then just had beepers and they developed their own pager code so that they could exchange messages. I still have the code written out by my daughter.

Yeh it was a while ago heh, been a while since i visited family.  But even at that stage, SMS was massive here.  And available there, just not used.

Text messeges are still easier and more efficient to use. Not everyone has the time to sit and wait for a response via Instant messenger. I see no advantage, you can do everything through sms/mms that you can through instant. (pictures, videos, thread conversations) and I dont have to sign in everytime to be contacted or be signed in 24/7.

jaden:

or be signed in 24/7

Welcome jaden - good point, I tend not to be signed in on my phone as I usually stay signed in on my PC, and you can't be signed into most (?) services twice.

Adam - Perhaps the message travles just as fast, but I think that Massimo's point is more cultural.

When you receive an SMS there is no underlying assumption of the sender that you reply immidiatly. It's not a chat.  That's how SMSs always been.

Whereas, when you're in an IM session, the sender might get "offended" if you delay your reply too long (That's how Pc based IM always been). It has to be interactive.

It could be, though, that people would learn to adjust their cultural expectations to the technology... so the IMer would understand the other side is actually IMing from his mobile and cannot reply as quickly or as promptly.

Welcome to the Connection, Itai!

You're right about IM while mobile. I always feel "under pressure" to respond immediately, whereas with text there's an understanding that it functions more like an inbox. 

When I'm IMing, I dislike the experience of being slow to respond, and having the other person continue the conversation, and then me sending a response that's actually to an earlier remark, and having both of us get confused. That's why there's that "under pressure" feeling, I think.

Welcome Itai.

Bill Fisher:

When I'm IMing, I dislike the experience of being slow to respond, and having the other person continue the conversation, and then me sending a response that's actually to an earlier remark, and having both of us get confused.

I so agree - I tend to IM fairly rarely because of this.

Itai Frenkel:

When you receive an SMS there is no underlying assumption of the sender that you reply immidiatly. It's not a chat.  That's how SMSs always been.

Whereas, when you're in an IM session, the sender might get "offended" if you delay your reply too long (That's how Pc based IM always been). It has to be interactive.

Most IM's will tell you with an icon of a cell phone to let you know, the IMer at home know that the user on the other end is on a cell phone, so the odds of being offended are reduced.

 I agree with a previous poster who mentioned having to be signed in to MIM. That's a hassle, and robs performance from your device.

Welcome lukewarm81.

My daughter uses IM very heavily opposed to SMS.

Her main reason is that her tariff allows for unlimited IMs against 700 mins/txts per month. Therefore, she can sit all night and have multiple 'convos' running, without having to worry about the cost.

There are 3 main advantages of IM over SMS that I can see:

• Unlimited message length
• Threaded messaging (although WM6.1 now offers this)
• Cost - when comparing data plans to cost per SMS/MMS