I love SMS

Fact1 - GSM companies are still growing in the US, while GSM users are over a billion
Fact2- most primitive CDMA/TDMA handsets were basic gadgets for voice and are now rolling out great user interface and functionalities.
Fact3- people are just not accustomed to text messaging.
Fact4- SMS is an addictive disorder that grows at 170% a year in and attracts more revenue than voice in Europe, APAC region.
Fact5- Unsurprisingly, American SMS market still lies untapped by virtue of PC & instant messaging. Hence the bigger trade off between SMS and e-mail/instant messaging is the gadget size, price, service cost and portability.

I believe that there is no need to re-invent the wheel. Ideally, I would either adopt, cross-license, partner or buy technology from other continents. The SMS based mobile apps (which you refer to social messaging) essentially are already generating whopping revenues in areas like mobile-banking, ticketing, gaming, ringtones, dating, voting, shopping et cetera. Austin investors and group companies need to explore this before explicitly dismissing the thought of content management/delivery over SMS/MMS.

On a different subject, Service companies like Banks and Insurance companies are adopting web/wireless channels in their core business models to avoid complexities. Pardon my rhetoric- why wouldn't an Insurer need integrated tech investment, wherein leads, reports, claims processing,commissions, customer database, calculators, all are processed anytime/anywhere without minimum manual intervention?