SMS Co-Inventor Matti Makkonen Dead At 63

An anonymous reader writes: The BBC News reports that Matti Makkonen, a 'grand old man of mobile industry' who helped launch the worldwide sensation of texting, has died at the age of 63 after an illness. Although planning to retire later in 2015 from the board of Finnet Telecoms, Makkonen constantly remained fascinated with communications technologies, from the Nokia 2010 mobile phone to 3G connections. He lived just enough to witness the last remnants of former Finnish mobile industry giant Nokia disappear, as Redmond announced its intent last month to convert all Nokia stores into Microsoft-branded Authorized Reseller and Service Centers, offering Xbox game consoles alongside the Nokia-derived Lumia range of smartphones.

Comments

Re:Couldn't summarize it in 140 characters?

[Eunuchswear]

140? What is this 140 characters of which you speak?

SMS is 140 octets, either 160 characters (7 bit gsm.03.38 code) or 80 characters (utf-16).