Mobile advertising/marketing companies are being snapped up right now on the anticipation that rich-media WAP pages are going to be big on handsets, but it’s good to remember the things that are already big on handsets…like SMS. “SMS is no underdog. It has huge adoption now, is very versatile and useful and is going to persist, even if the handsets and networks catch up to the hype being created around WAP and clients. It’s not like the industry is slamming text messaging, most just ignore it for the razzle-dazzle of newer technology. But some are realizing where the real volume is. Maybe more importantly, SMS has the highest overall usage rates in the US (37 percent) compared to WAP (14 percent) or rich clients (6 percent),” writes Zaw Thet, CEO of 4INFO, in VentureBeat. Sure, as CEO of an SMS company he has a vested interest, but he makes some valid point. SMS has the advantages of simplicity, ubiquity, asynchronousity (you can send a request and get information later, without having to keep the phone open), and is a “push” technology.