The seemingly unstoppable rise in text messaging saw another boost during March, as levels reached an unprecedented 2.1 billion for the month.
According to the Mobile Data Association the figure is an increase of 80 million on the previous month and a 25% rise on the same period last year.
A monthly average of 69 million messages were sent during March this year, compared to 56 million last year and 43 million in 2002, showing that the popularity of the traditional text message has not been dented by the arrival of more advanced communications such as video calling, or picture messaging.
The increased figures follow a rising interest in mobile marketing. Emap recently splashed out £800,000 on a cross media campaign for the United International Pictures film, Honey, including high profile text and photo message marketing elements.
Chrysalis Radio also launched mobile marketing elements to some of their shows last month, inviting Galaxy listeners to send photos and text to the station from their mobile camera-phones. The station then selected the best pictures for inclusion on their website for all listeners to see.
The apparent rise in popularity of text messages could be due in part to the inclusion of data from Virgin Mobile. Before January the MDA’s figures consisted of messages sent solely from Orange, O2, T-Mobile and Vodafone and this may have a bearing, particularly in year on year analysis, where figures including Virgin’s totals are being compared with figures excluding them.
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