Can iPad support SMS application with 3G?

Are you talking about wanting the iPhone SMS app on the iPad? If so the answer is no, and the answer will always be no... The iPad is not a phone...

It's true that the iPad can't directly do this itself, because agreed the iPad is not a phone. However there are a number of text applications which you can download from iTunes that will do this in the application, i.e. you can send and receive SMS text messages from within the app. My wife got one of these and used it for a while. It worked app to app but also did the right formatting so that she could send and receive text messages to cell phones as you would expect. Worked well but she didn't really use it very often so eventually we just deleted it.

Some are free and others are paid. Just search in there and see if something meets your needs.

Not a particularly supportive response. I do believe we all know the ipad is not a phone. However many of us also know of SMS applications that can be used on desktops etc. May I suggest your responses in future are not so opinionated. "The answer will always be no" suggests you have some inside information as to future developments of Apple products.

Thanks

i'm pretty sure i can dig the comments from steve jobs up somewhere... i believe it was in the conference call where he said no phone functionality outside of VOIP apps and the "SMS" apps will ever be on the iPad. My "insider" info comes from public announcements, comments, and interviews by apple executives.

note that the "SMS" apps are not anything like real SMS, they are more of an IM client...

Please not that there exist non-phone 3G devices supporting SMS.
Internet 3G dongles (at least on most models I know in Europe) support sending and receiving SMS. SMS is basically "signalling" traffic on GSM / UMTS networks.
The funny thing is that it's more than a decade that telecommunication gurus say that SMS is dead (by the way LTE is not going to support them) since e-mail on mobile devices is much more flexible and constrained to shortness...and then popular services like twitter highlighted that "shortness" is a key value for many of us.

I use Textplus4, works great, my iPad can text using textplus4 and make phone calls using Whistle. It does use separate numbers but my friends/family copied my numbers so they know when I"m using my phone or iPad when contacting them.

Sent from my iPad

Well, I use "Truphone" on my iPad, downloaded legally from the app store.

I can make voice calls over both 3G and Wifi networks and send SMS messages.

I also have another app "Jelly SMS" and I can send SMS messages from my iPad and iPhone. Again, over 3G or Wifi.

Incidentally, both apps require your mobile number. This is good because when my recipients receive my texts, they appear to come from my usual mobile number.

Of course, incoming texts come to your iPhone. I just have to remember to reply via jelly SMS.

You have to register with the se companies and pay for your usage but its a lot cheaper than using my particular Movistar contracted plan.

I hope that proves a bit more useful to you.

I have looked at the MessageUI.framework api and simply for the iPad the messaging service that it talks to does not exist (from what I can tell). This is on IOS 4.2.1.

The problem is although it seems like a dumb idea to send SMS's, in S.A. if you buy a prepaid data bundle, the instructions are to dial NumberVoucher Number#

The only way to do it currently is to move the sim to a phone.
In Europe, I beleive there are similar feature when you buy a new sim, the network automatically sends you a message.

So basically if you don't have a data contract, this is a big issue.