My morning emails are generally a dull affair with amazon trying to sell me more DVD’s or catching up with the latest news from the new country.  This morning was more of a shock as an avid twitter user based on their UK SMS number.

Twitter is no longer delivering outbound SMS over their UK number, they are still supporting Canada, India and the US.  They have taken this step to cut costs, they suggest that even with the 250 limit on texts this can cost about $1000 a month per user.  Basically the problem being that although you send one text (which you are charged for) it can be replicated to 10 other users (which twitter pays for).   I feel a bit annoyed that they would cut the supply off with no notice whatsoever, but I am more annoyed at the British operators not being able to strike a deal with twitter.

Twitter has posted some good news though (although it is more made up good news rather than actual hard fact good news) “Twitter will be introducing several new, local SMS numbers in countries throughout Europe, in the coming weeks and months. These new numbers will make Twittering more accessible for all the folks who have been using SMS to send long-distance updates through our UK number“.  So no actual hard dates then…and you’re cut off NOW!

They have also posted some alternatives for mobile phones:

Personally I use the betwittered gadget from 32hours, you can stick it into your google home page as well as using the mobile web page.  It is quicker and easier than using twibble mobile…(sorry twibble).

A few choice reactions from the user community:

• Kilobox
• Man with no Blog
• Michael Specht
• Vizekongin (for the German readers amongst us).

So there you have it, August 14 2008, the demise of twitter begins.  It has turned itself from be a useful tool for conversation microblogs into, well, email.  A nice large step back in evolutionary terms.