More Than 16.5 Million Now Use Photo Messaging
More than 16.5 million people in the UK are now able to send and receive photo messages and e-mail via their mobile phones, according to new figures from the Mobile Data Association.
The latest GPRS technology provides always on capability to users, along with faster speeds than conventional handsets, making e-mail and mobile web browsing a possibility. MMS-capable devices enable users to send and receive photographs and are increasingly being used as marketing tools by advertisers.
The quarterly figures from mobile network operators O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone show a rapid increase in uptake of GPRS phones compared with previous quarters. However, those with cutting-edge mobiles are still in a minority, representing only 34.7% of the total 47.5 million mobile devices in the UK.
MMS or photo phones represented a total of 11 million devices at the end of March 2004, with a penetration rate of 24% for the total UK market. An ever-increasing number of photo-capable handsets and a growing range of services mean that both MMS and GPRS are benefiting from stimulated adoption and usage. Both technologies are widely seen as a stepping stone to video-messaging 3G mobile phones.
Commenting on the new figures, Mike Short, chairman of the MDA, said: “An ever increasing range of mobile data services are providing customers with greater mobility, ease of use, higher access speeds and of course more functionality. In turn this provides greater opportunities for many new players in developing innovative services and applications.”
Several high-profile media owners and advertisers have launched MMS-based campaigns and initiatives in the past year. Chrysalis recently became the first UK radio group to embrace multi-media messaging and Emap launched an MMS advertising campaign to promote the film Honey as part of a wider £800,000 cross-media deal (see Emap Sweet On MMS With Honey Promotion).
The latest usage figures for conventional text messaging show an unabating rise in UK text messaging figures, with totals for April at record levels of over 2 billion. Person-to-person texts sent across all of the UK’s mobile network’s showed an increase of almost 26.3% on the total sent during the same period in 2003, a daily average of 70 million messages.
Mobile Data Association: 01922 419600 www.mda-mobiledata.org
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