（发送史上条短信的英国工程师Neil Papworth：Happy Christmas！）

 

OMG: Text messaging turns 19 this week … and this is the Brit we have to thank for our sore thumbs

OMG: 手机短信今年19岁了 我们要感谢的是这位英国小伙子！

Text messaging turns 19 this week but what few people know is that the first person to send one was in fact a British engineer.

到这星期，手机短信诞生就满19年了，但很少有人知道条短信的发送者是一位英国工程师。

 

While many might have assumed it would have emanated from some high-tech office in Silicon Valley, California, it came from an office in Newbury, Berkshire.

很多人会猜想条短信的诞生地是在加州硅谷的某个高科技公司，但实际上它诞生于英国伯克郡的纽伯里。

 

And the man who sent it was Neil Papworth who aged 22 texted Vodafone director Richard Jarvis at a staff Christmas party the full greeting 'Happy Christmas' - not, note, 'Happy Xmas'.

条短信的发送者名叫尼尔·帕普沃思(Neil Papworth)，发送这条短信时他年仅22岁。短信的接收者名叫理查德·贾维斯（Richard Jarvis），他是跨国移动电话运营商沃达丰公司的部门经理，收到这条短信时他正在公司的圣诞派对上，短信的内容是：圣诞快乐（Happy Christmas）——注意：不是简写的Happy Xmas。

 

Mr Papworth sent the SMS (or Short Message Service) from his work computer to an Orbitel 901 handset on the Vodafone network and thereby set off a revolution in the way we communicate, date, work and network.

帕普沃思用他的办公电脑发出的这条短信，通过沃达丰的网络，收到短信的是一部欧比特 901手机。从此，短信革命性的改变了我们的通信、约会、工作和社交模式。

 

'I was a young engineer working on new communications technologies. We thought SMS was a clever way for a company's staff to send simple messages to one another,' Mr Papworth told the SMS & Mobile Messaging Association at a gathering to mark the 15th anniversary.

“那时候我是一名通信科技方向的年轻工程师。我们认为短信息能够很方便的用于公司员工的内部交流。”在短信和移动信息服务协会成立15周年的年会上，帕普沃思这样说道。

 

'I'd never have predicted that it would spread into the consumer world and become what it is today. At the time it didn't seem like a big deal.'

“我从没料想过短信能成为一项商业服务，并发展成像今天这样。当时它看起来没什么大不了。”

 

And ever since that December day in 1992 the number of texts has grown and grown giving rise to an entirely new vernacular.

从1992年12月短信诞生那天起，短信发送数量与日俱增，并产生了全新的短信语言。

 

What would life now be without OMG, LOL, TTYL and 'cya l8er'?And - heaven forbid - emoticons?

如果没有了OMG（Oh my god 额滴神）， LOL（大笑），TTYL（Talk to you later 一会儿聊）， 'cya l8er'（see you later 回见），或者没有了那些表情符号，我们现在的生活会是什么样子？

For many teens, who have never known life without a mobile phone, the world pre-texting seems inconceivable.

很多青少年都未曾体验过没有手机的生活，在他们看来，短信诞生前的世界是不可想象的。

 

One phone per family? In the hall? With the whole family wanting to use it? How did that work?

每家只有一部电话？电话放在客厅？全家都用一部电话？怎么可能？！

 

But now landlines and snail mail are long gone, pagers and the fax machine were over before they began, and the world has been left texting, tweeting, chatting and IM’ing into oblivion.

固定电话和邮寄信件早已落伍，寻呼机和传真机还没兴起就已经被淘汰，现在时兴的是短信、推特、网聊和即时通讯。

 

Still, the take up of texting was slow.

当然，短信的流行也经历了漫长的过程。

 

Considering the first was sent in 1992, messaging didn’t become commonplace until the early 2000s. In fact, in 1995 mobile phone customers sent only 0.4 messages on average each per month.

条短信诞生于1992年，但直到2000年左右，短信才变得流行起来。事实上，在1995年，手机用户每月平均发送短信数量只有0.4条。

 

Post 2000 however things changed and texting took off. Some 8 trillion text messages will be sent in 2011 - or over 15 million each minute.

2000年之后，短信变得流行起来。2011年一年的短信发送总量将达到约8万亿条——每分钟1500万条。

 

The biggest texters are from the subscribers in the Philippines who text an average of 27 messages each day.

发送短信最多的人是菲律宾手机用户，平均每人每天要发送27条短信。

 

In last year alone SMS texts generated $114.6 billion in global revenues.

仅去年一年，全球短信服务业就创造了1146亿美元的收入。

 

That’s just the beginning, according to the experts, who estimate that mobile networks will earn $726 billion from SMS text messaging over the next five years.

而这仅仅是开始，根据导师预测，未来5年里，移动网络提供商将能从短信服务中赚取7260亿美元。

 

While some may resent the little messages for causing a demise in verbal communication, for many the humble text is a quick route out of an unwanted chat.

有人可能会抱怨短信的使用减少了语言的交流，因为一条寥寥数言的短信就能省却无数口舌。

 

‘If you call, the conversation can go on and on. With texting you can just say “Meet me here in ten” and you’re done,’ Rachel Claire, an avid texter, told Mail Online.

“如果打电话，对话可能会没完没了的进行下去。而发短信的话，你只需要告诉对方‘十点在这儿见面’就好了。” 短信拥趸瑞秋·克莱尔（Rachel Claire）告诉每日邮报记者。

 

Many are wondering whether the SMS is also in danger of becoming a communication relic; with email messaging from phones such as Blackberrys or Apple’s Imessage in danger of taking over.

很多人都想知道，短信会不会被黑莓等手机的邮件信息服务或者苹果的Imessage取代，而退出历史舞台呢？

 

Only time will tell.

只有让时间来给出答案了。