• The Wall Street Journal, Friday, June 10, 2011 10:18 AM

Led by Apple and Google, mobile messaging services are curbing the once-rapid growth of texting messaging, The Wall Street Journal reports. Granted, U.S. cell phone users sent and received over 1 trillion texts in the second half of 2010, according to CTIA, a wireless industry trade group. But while that represented an 8.7% increase from the prior six months, "It was the slimmest gain since texting exploded last decade."

Not making phone carriers' lives any easier, Apple just showed off an application that will let iPhone and iPad owners send text messages online to other Apple device owners. Google is also working on a simple messaging application, sources tell WSJ. Similar to Research in Motion's popular BlackBerry Messenger, are a growing threat to a texting business that generated $25 billion in revenue in the U.S. and Canada last year.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »