Despite smartphones revolutionising the mobile industry, new research has found that the traditional text message is still the king of mobile communication.
A new study published by Acision, the mobile communications company, has revealed the role that SMS messages play in everyday life for UK consumers.
After surveying 1,000 mobile users in the UK, 63% of which were smartphone users, research proved that SMS is still indispensable.
Results from the survey found that up to 95% of the participants stated that they actively use SMS. Even more interestingly, 93% of Brits who own a smartphone admit to regularly communicating via SMS, despite having Instant Messaging (IM) services on their handset.
Further data showed that 51% of Smartphone users said they would be “lost without” an SMS facility.
“Reports that suggest that SMS is on its deathbed, it seems, have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, it appears that smartphone and feature phone owners alike are united by their affection for text messaging,” commented Jorgen Nilsson, Chief Executive at Acision.
Converging platforms
Interestingly, research reveals that far from being in competition, SMS and IM services are actually complementing each other.
Nilsson stressed that what is particularly interesting is that SMS seems to excel on devices that have been more commonly associated with IM services.
“After looking at these results it is clear that while IM is growing in popularity, it still has a long way to go to catch up with the reach, reliability and ubiquitous nature of SMS. Analysts are predicting that Mobile IM will exceed 1.3 billion users by 2016, compared to over 5 billion users with access to SMS today,” concluded Nilsson.
While IM is useful to communicate with people in an everyday environment such as family or friends, SMS is the best tool when looking for a more formal way of communication. This is why business SMS is a great service that provides fast and effective communication by keeping a respectful distance from the user at the same time.
