Almost 60% of US mobile subscribers use their handsets for non-voice functions, according to a new study by mobile market measurement company, M:Metrics.
M:Metrics surveyed over 23,000 mobile subscribers in the US about their usage of mobile content and applications between November 2004 and January 2005.
The research found that over 37% of respondents had sent or received a text message within the researched time period, with 68% of 18 to 24 year olds, 52% of 25 to 34 year olds and 37% of 35 to 44 year olds using text messaging.
In the UK, text messaging is breaking records with 2.5 billion messages sent over January 2005, overtaking December’s total and making a new record, according to the Mobile Data Association (MDA) (see January 2005 Breaks Text Message Record).
M:Metrics found that no other activity approached the popularity of text messaging, with mobile internet functions such as mobile email and accessing the news via a web browser being used by just 14% of respondents.
Last month the Mobile Data Association reported that wireless application protocol (WAP) usage in the UK enjoyed a 23% rise over Christmas 2004, with a average daily total of more than 40 million downloads (see 2004 Exceeds Predictions For WAP Usage).
The overall number of page impressions viewed during 2004 reached 14.6 billion, making a new annual record and exceeding the MDA’s previous forecast of 13 billion for the year (see WAP Pages To Reach 13 Billion In 2004).
Other findings from the M:Metric report show that although about one-third of the surveyed users claimed they had played a game on their mobile phone, just 3.3 % had actually downloaded a game. Men were far more likely than women to have downloaded a game, Seamus McAteer, M:Metrics’ co-founder and chief product architect, put this down to the content of the games on offer, saying: “Too many of the titles available for sale are action/adventure and sport games.”
Earlier this year, Juniper Research predicted that lotteries, betting and casino style gambling will generate over $2 billion for the mobile phone industry by 2006, signalling an increase in mobile phone multi use function (see Gambling To Generate Over $2 Billion By 2006 For Mobile Phone Industry).
Mobile marketing is another function predicted to be exploited in the coming year, with analysts eMarketer forecasting 2005 to be a “breakout year” for the platform.
Nick Wiggin, executive director of the mobile marketing association confirmed this opinion, telling MediaTel INSIGHT: “With over 50% of mobile handsets now receiving picture messages the penetration and reach of pictures on handsets is a more attractive proposition, and advertisers and agencies are asking more questions and getting excited about these new handsets.”
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