Technology giant, Apple is planning to launch its new iMessage service, which will allow users to send short messages using internet and avoid being charged by operators for texts, on Wednesday.

The new iMessage instant-messaging feature for iOS devices was announced by Steve Jobs at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2011 in June this year. The announcement of the service had caused a lot of surprise not only among Apple's competitors but also telecom operators, who apparently came to know about any such service after it was announced on stage.

The new service allows iPhone owners to send messages with text, photos and video to other iPhone owners using a Wi-Fi or cellular data connection. The service comes as an update to Apple's iOS mobile operating system and will automatically handle messages sent between iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users with the latest version of the software.

The SMS and MMS remain a huge revenue generating field for telecom carriers. There have been some third party apps offering alternative services but iMessage, that will be an integral part of iOS 5 and will be available on the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch 3rd/4th-gen and the iPad/iPad 2 will have a much wider user base and thus much significant impact.