[teek]

Good. I've been waiting for a non-SMS and non-iMessage way of communicating. Americans shouldn't be tied to cell phone plans or the Apple vertical monopoly in order to communicate.

In Japan, for example, we are starting to see individuals not even purchase a smartphone but just an ipad, ipod, or some sort of wireless device along with a portable wifi hotspot. This enables them to use whatever device they want to communicate. It is certainly far from ubiquitous but the fact that it is possible to get by on a data plan is exactly how the wireless net should work.

Now a facebook, LINE, WeChat, WhatsApp, Viber regional monopoly isn't the ideal end-game either. But it looks like it will take that first step before some sort of standard beyond plain SMS emerges.