For the last day in our history week series we will be looking into the future of SMS marketing and how history can be a lens through which we can view it.
It all began in 2007, the year when text messages surpassed calls. It became the world’s most popular mobile data service and was used by 2.4 billion out of 3.3 billion mobile phone users.
It all began 183 years ago when the electric telegraph was invented. It was 1837 and the first device could electronically send text-based messages from one location to another. The first telegram, sent by Samuel Morse (yes, the man that invented the morse code) only travelled the distance of two miles. But by 1844, Morse had stepped up his game and had set up the first long-distance telegraph system between Baltimore and Washington with a total distance of 44 miles. The first message sent using the system read “WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT.” Trust us when we say, it was not a typo.
The modern-day mobile phone started with a company called Motorola, Inc. It was an American multinational telecommunications company founded on the 25th of September 1928, based in Schaumburg, Illinois. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company demerged into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on the 4th of January 2011. 47 years before the divide, on the 3rd of April 1973 Motorola mass produced the worlds very first handheld mobile phone. Nicknamed ‘The Brick’ it had a price tag of over £7,500. So how did the world go from no mobile phones to mass producing them for the very first time?