SMS Text Messaging Not Ready for Prime Time

Many folks who donated to Obama’s campaign to get an advanced announcement of Obama’s running mate selection didn’t ever receive the message.  Tests on the system shows that 40-50% of the subscribers did not get the message.

Industry analysts are saying that this highlights the infrastructure’s inability to handle the volume for mass media campaigns.

I wonder why if the tests prior to the announcement showed such poor performance, did they go ahead with announcing via SMS? Couldn’t they have emailed their donors with a login to a password protected site to check the annoucement? Not that the campaign could control the media, who ruined the surprise anway…