To start off, I want to say that I don’t like text messages. I am annoyed every time I get one – mainly because I don’t see why someone wouldn’t just call me if they wanted to tell me something. Also, I have a pretty basic phone plan, so it costs me money to respond to the texts (which I rarely do).

With that said, I am a big fan of market disruption, and a little company called Hotxt is about to start disrupting the market big time.

In this week’s Economist, Hotxt is profiled as the new Skype for the text messaging market.

How does it work? All a user has to do is download the Hotxt software to their handset, sign up for an account, and pay $1.75 per week. Once this is done, Hotxt users can send text messages to other Hotxt users for only about a penny – a lot less than traditional text messaging.

Text messaging accounts for 20% of a typical mobile operators revenues – and texting has margins in excess of 90%. So it will be interesting to see what mobile phone operators will do to keep a hold on the texting market.

The really cool thing with a product like Hotxt is the potential of it going viral. Texting is all about communication and community. If you are able to get enough people using Hotxt to reach the tipping point, the growth of the product will be exponential.

Hotxt is only available in the UK at this point, but the company is looking to expand into other countries soon. I am sure it will find a happy following in the US.

So, will something like Hotxt make me more likely to start texting? I doubt it – but then again, I am not Hotxt’s target market, am I?