"It all comes down to two simple facts: email is based on open standards, and it's the lowest common denominator for Internet communication. Any communication system that wishes to supplant email will need to offer both openness and ubiquity, and nothing available today comes even close."
Gina Trapani says there's a time when shutting down email makes sense:
"If you're looking for a quick answer to a question, a phone call (when the person on the other end picks up) yields an immediate response, but an email could languish unread in ten inboxes. When an exchange involves several back-and-forths, days' worth of email could be avoided with a five-minute call."
Twitter and Facebook might be how many of us communicate these are good reminders that two old stalwarts - email and the phone - are not going away.
