However, there is a difference between bulk, wholesale costs and individual retail costs, and prices. SMS is hardly the one and only example of high markup goods in history. Indeed, there are a plethora of entire industries in the same boat. Consider toys, many toys cost a few percent of their in-store retail prices, but again those costs are in bulk at wholesale. The same applies to batteries. And everyone knows about the huge markups in furniture and mattresses. The best advice is to find alternatives or shop around. If you just give in and accept the price that means you've declared you value the good you receive higher than the price you're paying for it (and in many cases SMS's are worth as much as people are paying).
Adam smith said that something is worth whatever a person at a particular time is willing to pay for it, there is no consistent, inherrent value in any given trade.
SMS is popular because it is ubiquitous, the mobile phone networks have priced it at a point where the vast majority of users are happy to pay for it. There is no law against high profit margins, nor should there be in my opinion. You could argue there is a competition/monopoly/cartel issue here, but that wasn't too apparent in the article.
And as others have said SMS will eventually go away due to the availability of data plans. I wish all my friends had data plans and were on twitter, I would never need to send an SMS again, until then I can afford it, especially since I don't send very many.
Well, in most of the normal goods you listed, someone's free to sell good, cheap furniture or toys. Target's in business, as are smaller businesses. Telecom's a natural monopoly, which is prone to distortions -- in a normal market, you'd think competition would drive the price of texts down to free, right? It's finally happening but it took a long time. Essentially now it's just a hidden cost in the price, add in $15 to what's advertised for the unlimited texts.
However, there is a difference between bulk, wholesale costs and individual retail costs, and prices. SMS is hardly the one and only example of high markup goods in history. Indeed, there are a plethora of entire industries in the same boat. Consider toys, many toys cost a few percent of their in-store retail prices, but again those costs are in bulk at wholesale. The same applies to batteries. And everyone knows about the huge markups in furniture and mattresses. The best advice is to find alternatives or shop around. If you just give in and accept the price that means you've declared you value the good you receive higher than the price you're paying for it (and in many cases SMS's are worth as much as people are paying).