Matti Makkonen
The “father of texting” Born: April 16, 1952; Died: June 26, 2015.
MATTI Makkonen, who has died after a short illness aged 63, was a Finnish telecommunications engineer who originated the idea of text messaging on mobile phones. At first, he saw the idea as nothing more than a useful device for businessmen and never imagined it would catch on. Twenty years later, trillions of texts are being sent every year.
Born in Suomussalmi in Finland, Makkonen graduated as an electrical engineer from technical college in 1976 and began working in the industry as a systems designer for the country’s telecommunications authority.
Tasked with developing new mobile communication services, he came up with the idea of a text-generating feature over dinner with colleagues at a pizzeria in Copenhagen and the idea was discussed and developed over a number of years.
In the meantime, Makkonen made his way up the industry, while all the time being actively involved in the development of the texting technology. In 1984, he became vice-president of the Telecoms and Postal Agency but it was as president of Telecom Finland that he launched the SMS (short message service). The first message – “Merry Christmas” – was sent on December 3, 1992 to a mobile using Vodafone’s UK network.
Makkonen was surprised by how the idea developed from there. A service conceived as a business aid was quickly adopted by other users and there was rapid expansion of text messaging and an entirely new culture – arguably an entirely new language – emerged.
Makkonen himself kept a low profile as his invention took off and it was only when, in 2002, the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat sought to find out who came up with the idea that his role was made public. He became known as the father of texting although he always pointed out that he did not invent the technology single-handedly. “I did not consider SMS as a personal achievement,” he said, “but the result of a joint effort to collect ideas.”
In an interview on the 20th anniversary of the first text, he expressed his surprise at how things had gone. “Twenty years ago,” he said, “I didn’t see SMS as a separate issue – it was just a feature in the revolutionary mobile communications system. Very useful for quick business needs.”
One aspect of texting he did not appreciate was the text speak to which it gave rise. Asked if he ever used it himself, he said no. “My passion is to use correct language,” he said.
Makkonen never patented the idea so never received royalties although appeared to have no regrets over that.
Jarmo Matilainen, managing director of Finnish telecoms group Finnet Association, described Makkonen as a grand old man of the mobile industry.
“We liked to talk about SMS and that kind of thing, 3G and so on. He liked to talk about this all time,” he said. “He was just going to retire and he should have had many years ahead.”