Adults Catching Up with Kids in SMS/MMS Usage Stakes

Research shows that interest in new mobile data services is growing, but so are concerns about price and performance.

While kids are still sending and receiving the most mobile text and multimedia messages, young adults are quickly catching up.

A recent survey of American cell phone users conducted by Ipsos MORI on behalf of LogicaCMG Telecoms revealed that most of the growth in text and multimedia messaging is taking place among people aged 18 to 24. And young adults aren?t alone: the survey showed that usage of cell phones to check sports scores, get weather forecasts or order movie tickets is increasing rapidly across all ages at an even rate, with little difference between 18 year-olds and 40 year-olds.

"The thirty-something crowd is rapidly catching up with their younger counterparts when it comes to the adoption of new cell phone technologies in the U.S., and their older counterparts aren?t very far behind either," said Wayne Irwin, President, North America, LogicaCMG Telecoms.

"This increased interest in mobile messaging, video and audio is reflected nationwide when we compared the U.S. with other countries: for instance, when shown a new text messaging feature for 'out of office,' Americans showed more interest in using it than our British or German counterparts. Our research clearly shows that Americans are at the forefront when it comes to demanding mobile messaging applications and not behind like we often assume we are."

LogicaCMG is predicting North American text messaging volume growth of as much as 50 percent in 2007 ? a significant increase over previous years spurred by a dramatic increase in mobile-to-mobile messaging in addition to applications such as American Idol's audience voting and Starbucks' SMS store finder.

As interest in mobile messaging, Internet, video and audio increases, concerns about cost and speed are also emerging?and the survey found that men and women differ in their interests and concerns.

Men showed the most interest in mobile music and video: the survey found that 63 per cent of men compared to 37 per cent of women have watched a video or listen to music on their cell phones.

When it comes to concerns, men are also much more likely to complain about slow surfing speeds and poor video quality than women, while women show more concern about the cost and ease of use of new services than men, according to the survey.

62 per cent of men compared to 38 per cent of women expressed concern about surfing speed and video quality, while 56 per cent of women compared to 44 per cent of men stated they would send videomail messages to their friends if it were easy and cheap to do.

The survey, conducted by Ipsos MORI in March 2007, polled more than 1,000 USA cellphone users. The American survey was part of a larger global survey that polled more than 8,500 mobile users worldwide. The survey also found that:

• U.S. mobile users are sending an average of two SMS messages per day, compared with an average of six per day in the European countries polled and 24 per day in the Asian countries polled.
• Americans continue to pay the most for cell phone service of any of the nine countries polled?US$59.25 per month versus an average of US$35.53 in Italy, Great Britain, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Russia, Italy and Germany. Filipinos pay the least at US$25.48 per month.
• 15 per cent of American cell phones are on prepaid plans.
• 28 per cent of American mobile users have bundled text messaging plans or allowances.

"Operators need to be able to address these concerns as they roll out more services to meet the growing demand for mobile messaging, browsing, video and audio," said Irwin. "Speed and price are both critical success factors for customer adoption and satisfaction. LogicaCMG has a long history of helping mobile operators deploy successful mobile data services, and is perfectly aligned to help exceed expectations as operators look to market new services, deliver more content and improve the user experience."

Posted to the site on 3rd April 2007