Summer of Sequels Comes to Text Messaging

It’s approaching summertime which means it’s time for sequels.  We have already had the latest Die Hard movie.  The Wizard of Oz now has a sequel.  SpiderMan 2 is coming as is another round of Transformers and X-Men. 

So why does Hollywood have such a reliance on sequels?  Money.  Nothing more complicated than that.  If an original movie did well, sequels are created to extend the revenue stream the original movie produced.  In short, take a successful idea and extend the usefulness of the idea to create continued revenue streams.  If the formula did not work, you can be sure that Hollywood would not create the vast number of sequels it does every year.

Technology is the same.  Apple has grown to be very successful by creating sequels of all their hottest products.  In many cases, these sequels are delivered long before a dip in the current revenue streams occurs.  HP used to do the same with printers.

Did you know that text messaging has a sequel waiting in the wings.  That’s right.  The most ubiquitous form of sharing information has a new version ready to be delivered to every text messaging user in the world.  Want to see success built upon success?  That’s Smashtalk^®. 

Smashtalk is the sequel to the current form of text messaging.  Like a movie sequel, current texting users will quickly recognize the original and find the sequel to be even better. 

Smashtalk is text messaging that includes Reply-All functionality.  No web sites.  No change of behavior.  No impact to the carrier’s network.  Send a text message to a group of friends or colleagues and each recipient can reply with a single text message that goes to everyone on the original recipient list.  It’s just like e-mail but done with text messaging.

Smashtalk is fully backwards compatible with existing phones thus allowing Smashtalk messages to be received as if they were sent by an old-fashioned phone.

Simply put, Smashtalk is the sequel to the current generation of text messaging and Smashtalk patents are available for licensing.  Smashtalk is running today on PCs and Macs and can be easily ported to any telephony device.

If you are ready for the text messaging sequel, contact your carrier and demand they provide you Smashtalk on your phone.  Isn’t it time you enjoy a sequel that makes your life easier each and every day?

Come visit us and use our links to let your carrier know you want Smashtalk.  www.smashtalk.net

Smashtalk® is Like the Bicycle

Bicycles are a major form of transportation all over the world today.  It is amazing when you look at the history of bicycles how one key change to the design of the bicycle changed the nature of bicycles forever.  Smashtalk® is poised to do the same to the world of text messaging.

In 1817, Baron von Drais invented a walking machine that would help him get around the royal gardens faster: two same-size in-line wheels, the front one steerable, mounted in a frame which you straddled.  The device was propelled by pushing your feet against the ground, thus rolling yourself and the device forward in a sort of gliding walk.  It wasn't until 1865 that pedals were added.  That’s 48 years between invention and the first major improvement.

Text messaging celebrated its 20 year anniversary this past November.  Like the bicycle, it’s taken a long time for any evolutionary changes to come to the world of text messaging.  That first evolutionary change is Smashtalk.

Smashtalk is native text messaging with the Reply-All functionality that ought to have been available from day 1.  Like pedals on a bicycle, Smashtalk changes everything about text messaging. 

Want to hold a real-time conversation with multiple friends or colleagues?  Smashtalk lets you do this without involving e-mail or web sites. 

Need to make a quick decision amongst multiple colleagues?  Smashtalk is the answer and works across all the carrier networks without their having to change anything. 

Worried about exposing your friend’s cell numbers through Reply-All?  Not a problem.  Smashtalk only displays names.  You cannot reply to names for which you do not possess a valid text messaging address.

The fact of the matter is that Smashtalk opens a lot of new doors as far as usage, functionality and benefit to all who have mobile devices that can send or receive text messages.  Even if you do not have a Smashtalk-enabled device, you will still receive Smashtalk messages.  What you will see is exactly what you see today; the name of the sender and the option to reply to the sender.

Smashtalk is running today on both Windows and Mac computers.  It is patented technology that is easily ported to any mobile operating system.  It is also inexpensive to license.

I invite you to visit www.smashtalk.net and click on the link to send a message to senior executives at Google asking them to include Smashtalk in Android.  Let them know that you can see the impact Smashtalk would have on how you connect with your friends and you want Smashtalk on your smartphone and tablet.. 

Isn't it time that text messaging got a set of “pedals?”

Text Messaging is like Windshield Wipers

What do windshield wipers and text messaging have in common?  More than you may imagine.

When cars were first being built, windshield wipers came 1 to a car and were manually twisted back and forth to clear the windshield.  The process, while primitive by today’s standard, worked just fine.  Cars did not travel at high speed and were not well sealed so driving in the rain was not a great experience wipers or not. 

Electric wipers were an innovation that added quite an expense and were commonly viewed as a feature for only the high-end cars.  It took a number of years before all cars came equipped with electric wipers.  As history has shown, without the introduction of electric wipers, driving cars at high speeds in the rain would be impossible.  Few people saw that potential limitation until cars started to go faster.  Text messaging is following this same evolutionary path.

Text messaging, recently celebrating 20 years of existence, is a very simple and easy way to send 160 characters to 1 or more recipients.  Like the first design of wipers, text messaging of today is antiquated and ripe for improvements.  The “motor-driven” version of SMS is text messaging with “Reply-All” functionality.  Sadly, until now, the majority of efforts to deploy this feature have involved the use of 3^rd party web sites.  In the wiper business, this is akin to using air jets to blow rain off the windshield instead of improving the wiper mechanism.

Smashtalk® is the “electric motor” version of text messaging.  Smashtalk is native text messaging but with the Reply-All capability baked right into the software.  No 3^rd party web sites.  No change to the carrier infrastructure.  No learning curve for the consumer.  Best of all, full backward compatibility with all existing SMS systems is native in Smashtalk.

The real question the telecom industry ought to be asking is what advances will occur once Smashtalk is adopted by all the mobile OS vendors?  Smashtalk’s Reply-All capability along with its application to application messaging is certain to change the way people and applications communicate.

Contact your carrier and handset vendor today and demand Smashtalk.  The future of text messaging awaits those with the vision to see the breadth of possibilities.

www.smashtalk.net

Innovation Applied to Existing Technologies

It rains a lot in Oregon so wipers are pretty much a necessity. Watching them go back and forth one afternoon got me to thinking, “I wonder how many cars are made today that do not have intermittent wipers?” I suspect that the answer is very few if any. Were Low – Medium – High not sufficient? Certainly better than On/Off as an option. How many of you would trade in your intermittent wipers for a “standard version with 3 speed settings? Yeah, me too. I like my variable speed option.

I am certain that there are a great many other examples of “industry standards” that were vastly improved and became the new “standard” in an industry. I bring this up as this is the situation with text messaging.

Text messaging continues to experience explosive growth in spite of the rhetoric of industry pundits that suggest it is “old fashioned” and “out of date” technology. Tell that to the growing base of consumers who are increasingly dependent upon text messaging as a primary communication means. The automobile industry shot down the idea of intermittent wipers for a variety of reasons including claims of consumers being “very happy” with their Low/Medium/High wipers. Surprisingly, the carriers and handset vendors today are saying the same thing about text messaging with a Reply-All option – “the consumers are very happy with the current technology and we do not see any need to improve things.”

To be fair, I have had some conversations with technologists who claim that the plethora of web-based group text services are the way of the future. I point out that such claims were made of the instant messaging world and look where that industry is now.

What is really encouraging is that of all the consumers to whom I have introduced the concept of Reply-All text messaging, not a one has told me they did not want it on their phone. Most said that were it available to them, they would seriously consider changing phones. Seems maybe the idea is too obvious to be valuable to the vendor community?

Smashtalk is the patent-pending technology that has the capability of providing every mobile phone user with the capability of enjoying text messaging with a Reply-All option while maintaining full backward compatibility with existing text messaging technology and infrastructure. Smashtalk is running today on PCs and Macs and is suitable for inclusion in any mobile handset.

I’d like your ideas about how to awaken the handset vendors and carriers alike to the modern day version of intermittent wipers; Smashtalk. How much more useful would text messaging be to you were you able to hold actual multi-party conversations via text messaging. The technology exists. Those who can put this technology in your hands don’t think it’s an innovation that is wanted by the consumer. I think they are wrong. I am hoping you agree.

If you would like to have the Reply-All option on your phone, I ask that you do something each time you send a text message and think, “I wish I had a Reply-All option right now.” I ask that you tweet the following:

I want Smashtalk so I can have the Reply-All option for my text msgs . #ATT #Verizon #WindowsPhone #Android #Motorola #Smashtalk

Thanks for your help in awakening the mobile industry.

An Idea Steve Jobs Would Have Appreciated

Steve Jobs, along with Jonathan Ive, embraced the love consumers have for technology “that just works.” The iPod, iPhone and iPad are great examples of existing ideas re-defined by an unyielding desire to make the products simple to use. The design of SmashTalk follows that same principle.

None of the myriad of group text messaging solutions that are garnering millions of VC investment dollars follow the basic rule that has helped Apple catapult itself ahead of all other vendors in its target markets. None are so simple that they just work. They don’t.

SmashTalk transforms the existing SMS experience without the necessity to change a single current consumer behavior. With SmashTalk, there are no web sites where lists need to be built, there are no services to which all your contacts must register and there are no issues with access speed. SmashTalk is the elegant solution to bring group text messaging to the consumers who continue to be hungry for a way to hold conversations with a group of individuals via SMS messaging.

The real questions in all of this is why are the carriers so silent and where are the handset manufacturers.

SmashTalk will triple the volume of SMS messages currently being sent through the carrier networks. These are revenue producing messages that do not highlight issues of dead zones or poor connections. SMS does not suffer from intermittent dead spots like phone calls or internet access. There are not multiple standards for SMS around the world as there are for voice calls and internet access. SMS just works and SmashTalk just works better.

The handset vendors claim to want new and innovative ideas that will set them apart and yet they sign up for Android and/or Windows Phone and thereby thrust themselves into highly limiting design worlds.

Microsoft is trying to maintain the control over Windows Phone to the degree Apple controls the iPhone yet allow its partners to vary the trivial qualities of their products. Android developers, while having more freedom to innovate, are also very limited in what they can develop if they desire to have the Android application developers as allies.

SmashTalk is the kind of innovation that will be quickly embraced by the consumers because its design allows it to just work. It is designed to work with Android, Windows Phone and the iPhone without any form of learning curve.

It is time for carriers and handset vendors to look at the handsets being built and sold and question every function; “Is there a better way to deliver this service?” Smashtalk is the better way to deliver SMS. SmashTalk is the equivalent of the touchscreen replacing the keypad. The accelerometer allowing screens to shift between portrait and landscape modes. Each of these changes which we take for granted today started with a single vendor realizing that the status quo represented an opportunity to innovate. SMS is about as status quo as it can get. It is time to bring innovation to SMS; innovation that consumers can embrace without changing a single usage pattern or habit; it just works. That’s SmashTalk. www.smashtalk.net

Here We Go Again!

Many years ago, instant messaging was all the rage. More than a dozen companies sprang to life all promoting their method and their “standard” as the next big thing. Even the really big players decided to try their luck in this new game that was going to take a large bite out of the e-mail market and make ICQ a dinosaur.

Anyone old enough to remember what happened knows that instant messaging is still in its infancy and has no hope of ever becoming the ubiquitous communication utility so many preached it would become. Seems that when everyone has a “standard” to push, no one can possibly win.

Imagine what would have happened were it not for an agreement on the formatting of SMTP messages. Today, e-mail systems can interact seamlessly for the same reasons that phone systems can interact; there was an agreement, (OK, several agreements), that set the stage for interconnecting all the various phone system standard each country decided to adopt. The result is a seamless ability to dial anyone from anywhere. E-mail can go to anyone regardless of the e-mail client of the sender and the receiver because of similar agreements.

And what of instant messaging. Well, it seems that no one was willing to give in order to get. Even the biggest players like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft tried to force the market to go their way and failed. Too many products fighting to become the standard and too many people wanting to be the controlling party.

A new wave of “ubiquitous communication tool” is now in the throes of the market model that killed instant messaging. This new wave is group text messaging.
Group text messaging; the ability to send text messages (SMS) to many people and their ability to reply to every original recipient. Today, every mobile telephony device available provides a simple form of SMS. Today’s SMS allows the recipient to only see the sender – no other recipients are available.

To solve this problem, at least 2 dozen companies have taken to the web to offer a solution. Yes, even the big boys like Google, Microsoft and Facebook are trying to take command of the market. Like the instant message of old, every offering from all these companies is incompatible with all the other offerings. That is, except 1.

Smashtalk® is the only form of group text messaging that is a plug-in replacement for the SMS engine in every telephony device available today. Smashtalk is the only group text messaging technology that does not require a change of consumer behavior to utilize. Smashtalk is the only solution to the group text chat problem that does not require participants to register lists of friends via special web sites.

History has a way of repeating itself. Sadly, too often the lessons of the past are considered too ancient to apply to today’s “high tech” innovations. “The world is different now.” “It’s not the same now as it was then.” Yes, heard that a lot. Heard it from myself when I was young and now I hear me telling young kids that history has lessons they ought to learn.
The world is run on economic decisions. Instant messaging could not advance partly because there was no base of established users on which to build and thus, there was no historical basis for cooperation. The economics did not make sense for businesses or consumers to adopt any 1 system because no system had sufficient reach.

The group text messaging market is at this critical inflection point today! Those of us who have been around can probably name another dozen technologies that went through the same inflection point. 802.11n made it but not before it had to be changed in order to level the playing field. Anyone remember G-Net or Omninet?

Success is more likely to occur from evolution than from innovation. Even Facebook has as its roots the broad audience that once surfed CompuServe forums sharing ideas and software with friends all over the globe.

The opportunity to create success in the group text messaging market is now. The solution is evolution that retains the broadest possible support to those standards that have come before. That solution is Smashtalk.