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Text messaging has reached 750,000 messages a day worldwide according to new research, but the most important growth for the technology may be in the US.
The GSM Association, an industry body, has revised estimates for the end of 2001 from 200 billion mobile messages sent yearly, to 250 billion. According to the organisation this revision means that the daily rate will top one billion regularly when the impact of the fast-growing Internet-to-mobile messaging services are included.
With the growth in use, comes a growth in new applications for the technology including sports results, betting services, lottery-style games and financial services. Nevertheless, straightforward person-to-person "texting" still accounts for the bulk of the traffic, said the group.
The GSM Association says the "text craze" is strongest in Europe with the Scandinavian countries particularly to the fore, but other parts of the world are catching on fast. The Philippines, the Far East, Australia and New Zealand are all seeing rapid rises in SMS take-up, it said.
A report issued last month by global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney said that short messaging services (SMS) are also rapidly taking hold in the US. The report by Mobinet studied 2,400 mobile phone users in six countries and was conducted by A.T. Kearney, a subsidiary of global services firm EDS, and Judge Institute of Management, Cambridge University.
The study, which took place in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Finland and Japan found that SMS usage grew by 10 percent since the last Mobinet study in January 2001.
The organisations involved said the US, which has trailed other regions of the world in m-commerce acceptance, that SMS is beginning to make inroads as its usage rose from eight percent to 12 percent among Internet-enabled phone users. SMS in the future looks even brighter, with an additional 30 percent of Internet-enabled phone owners in the US saying they are likely to use this method of communication.
This is important for a variety of reasons. Above all the 120 million mobile users in the US represent a massive pool of potential revenue for application developers in Europe and around the world. Second, the growth could spark new innovation by struggling SMS application development firms in the US who have found it hard to date to win funding or sign contracts with major US carriers.
"Having initially appealed as a cheap and handy communication tool for younger generations, SMS is now being rapidly adopted by adults," said Paul Collins, A.T. Kearney principal and leader of the study. "If you regard SMS as more than just a messaging route but as a commercial opportunity, then this trend presents significant opportunities for mobile providers, retailers and marketers."
The A.T. Kearney study showed that consumer interest in making purchases via Internet-enabled mobile phones has fallen, however. Intent to use phones for purchasing has collapsed from around 12 percent of users six months ago to just four percent today.
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