Finnish Texting Pioneer Matti Makkonen Passes Away At Age 63

The mobile industry has lost a giant. His name is Matti Makkonen, and though that might not be a name you're familiar with, you probably use a technology that he helped pioneer -- text messaging. Known as the father of SMS, Makkonen passed away at the age of 63 from an unspecified illness. Sad indeed, though his legacy lives on.

Though he's known as the father of SMS, Makkonen was quick to point out that he alone wasn't responsible for text messaging. There were other engineers involved, and he gives special credit to Nokia for helping to make texting so popular.


"The real launch of the service, as I see it, was when Nokia introduced the first phone that enabled easy write of messages (Nokia 2010 in 1994," Makkonen told BBC News in an interview two years ago.

In case you're wondering, Makkonen didn't use "txt spk" that many are so fond of today. However, he did always view SMS as having an impact on the development of language, and looking back, it would be hard to argue against that notion.

According to Makkonen's LinkedIn page, he last served as an adviser for Anvia before going into full retirement this past April.