As I suggested yesterday, Mobile Messaging might be the mobile operators' last chance to differentiate themselves from what appears to be a headlong slide into becoming Wireless ISPs.

Phil points out that they're not doing this for our benefit, and to a certain extent I agree with him. Their primary reason is to try to work out a path to the future that involves them keeping subscriber numbers up, and keeping revenue rolling in. Given that people are already trying alternatives to SMS, with irc, IMPS and IM, SMS can't really be relied on as a significant future earner. So the operators are taking a "if you can't beat them, join them" approach to IM. Let's face it, who's going to be in better position to offer an integrated SMS/IM/IMPS/WAP mobile messaging solution than the operators?

There's just two things they've got to avoid, greedy pricing and walled garden thinking.

Sounds too easy, no?