Among other carriers, AT&T is partnering with GOGII, the maker of textPlus, and application that enables free and unlimited SMS (in the U.S and Canada) for devices that normally don’t have access to SMS. The communications are paid for by sponsors or advertisers. This means that WIFI-only devices like iOS (iPod touch, iPhone) and Android tablets and MP3 players can get a phone number by which they can receive SMS text messages via textPlus.
This application goes beyond traditional texting and adds the notion of Group texting and also offers a social aspect as you can search for friends. Interestingly, it application is also available to 3G devices. It may be interesting to see if 3G-device users will download the app to get free SMS.
In any case, we trust that in the final analysis, AT&T will make more money as this expands the SMS market, and because SMS has amazing gross margins. What do you think of using SMS on non-phone devices?