Inventor of SMS, Matti Makkonen, Dies at 63

Matti Makkonen, widely referred to as the “father of SMS,” has died due to an illness at the age of 63. The Finnish tech pioneer pitched the original idea for text messaging over cellular networks at a telecoms conference in Copenhagen in the year 1984. Back then, he had been working as a civil servant.

More recently, Makkonen worked for Nokia Networks and Tele Finland, and was CEO of Finnet Oy from 2003 to 2005. In 2008, he was given The Economist’s Innovation award for his effort in the development of the message standard.

Despite being the one to come up with the idea for SMS, Makkonen did not apply for a patent. As a result, he did not receive any monetary gains from his invention. Interestingly, he was also reluctant to take credit for his involvement, and viewed the development of the Short Message Service standard as a joint effort with several other engineers. In reality, however, he did have a significant role to play in the development of the technology during its early stages.

The SMS standard continued to evolve past Makkonen’s involvement, with communications researcher Friedham Hillebrand being the one to come up with the 160-character format in 1985. Years later, in 1992, the very first message was sent by Neil Papworth to Vodafone’s director Richard Jarvis at a work party.

Makkonen predicted that SMS would continue to exist for a long time in some form or the other. While the specific technology has seen an overall decline in everyday life, the Finnish pioneer’s prediction still holds weight, as the short message format is deeply integrating into commonly used modern apps, ranging from Twitter to instant messaging. That said, SMS itself will likely not be going anywhere either, as it is useful for communication in remote areas, where mobile internet access is often expensive.


    • It’s not allowed to say this to a non-Muslim. Allah commands in the Holy Quran:

      It is not for the Prophet and those who have believed to ask forgiveness for the polytheists, even if they were relatives, after it has become clear to them that they are companions of Hellfire.

      Surat At-Tawbah [9:113]

      At another place, the Qur’an has also stopped the Prophet (pbuh) from praying for the salvation and forgiveness of those whose hypocrisy had become evident. The Qur’an says:

      (O Prophet,) do not ever pray for anyone of these (hypocrites) after his death, do not even stand by his grave. Indeed these are people who disbelieve in God and His prophet and have died in disobedience. (Al-Taubah 9: 84)

      • Please read Quran carefully. It specifically says after it has become clear to them that they are companions of hell fire or those who are hypocrites. Its very much possible that it might not have become clear to Makki Mattonen that he is a companion of Hell Fire or he just couldn’t get enough conviction and information that Islam is the only true religion. Why the hell we become so hard by believing that everyone who is a Non-Muslim have become clear of that they are companions of hell fire or they are hypocrites.

        Non-Muslims can go to heaven as well for their good deeds. Its beginning to look like that with load of good deeds of Non-Muslims, heaven will be crowded with Non-Muslims.

    • It’s not allowed to say this to a non-Muslim.

      Allah commands in the Holy Quran:

      It is not for the Prophet and those who have believed to ask forgiveness for the polytheists(مشرک ۔ کافر), even if they were relatives, after it has become clear to them that they are companions of H3llfire.

      Surat At-Tawbah [9:113]

      At another place, the Qur’an has also stopped the Prophet (pbuh) from praying for the salvation and forgiveness of those whose hypocrisy had become evident. The Qur’an says:

      (O Prophet,) do not ever pray for anyone of these (hypocrites) after his death, do not even stand by his grave. Indeed these are people who disbelieve in God and His prophet and have died in disobedience. (Al-Taubah 9: 84)

      If the person is your friend, you can express grief in other words.

  • Assalam-o-Alaikum respected members
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    Please guide me


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