Adam smith said that something is worth whatever a person at a particular time is willing to pay for it, there is no consistent, inherrent value in any given trade.
SMS is popular because it is ubiquitous, the mobile phone networks have priced it at a point where the vast majority of users are happy to pay for it. There is no law against high profit margins, nor should there be in my opinion. You could argue there is a competition/monopoly/cartel issue here, but that wasn't too apparent in the article.
And as others have said SMS will eventually go away due to the availability of data plans. I wish all my friends had data plans and were on twitter, I would never need to send an SMS again, until then I can afford it, especially since I don't send very many.
SMS is popular because it is ubiquitous, the mobile phone networks have priced it at a point where the vast majority of users are happy to pay for it. There is no law against high profit margins, nor should there be in my opinion. You could argue there is a competition/monopoly/cartel issue here, but that wasn't too apparent in the article.
And as others have said SMS will eventually go away due to the availability of data plans. I wish all my friends had data plans and were on twitter, I would never need to send an SMS again, until then I can afford it, especially since I don't send very many.