"Apple iMessage an unexpected shock to carriers: Goodbye SMS cash-cow" screamed the . Carriers were "blindsided" by this new messaging feature in iOS 5, the story reports, threatening the carriers' one really profitable revenue stream: SMS and MMS messaging.

The Slashgear "story" is based on one, brief blogpost by John Gruber, who writes the Daring Fireball blog. was a link to a MacRumors story on iMessage, and offered one comment and a parenthetical note. iMessage, Gruber wrote, "means iPhone users with iPhone-using friends and family no longer need SMS. I'll cancel my SMS plan as soon as this ships."

He concluded with a parenthesis that a "well-informed little birdie tells me that Apple's phone carrier partners around the world found out about iMessages when we did: during today's keynote [Monday, June 6, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference]."

The next rumor will be: As mobile carriers go bankrupt due to the loss of SMS revenues, Apple plans to deploy and run its own free, nationwide 4G cellular network.

There will be two iPhone 5 models, and two iPad 3 models. And iPhone 5 will be announced in September.