Text messaging might soon wind up as a dead technology, destined for that smoky gray place of yesterday where VCR tapes, record players, and rotary phones lie in great mounds.Growth in the text-messaging industry has slowed for the past several years, but for the first time ever, the number of texts sent per U.S. subscriber dropped in the first quarter, said John Hodulik, a UBS research analyst.

A number of factors play into this decline. Plenty of smartphone apps provide free text-messaging service: GroupMe, Disco, Beluga, to name a few. You can send a text message right from Google’s instant messenger. Some smartphone companies offer their own messaging services, like Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Messenger and Apple’s soon-to-debut iMessage.

And make no mistake, wireless companies are directly involved in the decline. Last week, AT&T scraped its cheaper texting plans, meaning its customers must now pay per message or chose its $20 unlimited plan. Other wireless companies are consider what will come next for them.

Before your anger mounts, and you reach for your phone to send out a few words about the outrages you’ve just read about, consider this:  A text message can contain a maximum of 160 bytes. Say you pay 20 cents per text message, you’ll wind up paying $1,250 per megabyte.

So keep the phone in your pocket. Perhaps it’s time to send text-messaging the way of the telegraph –  time for a mobile SOS.

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