Teen Text Messaging Statistics – Teens Texting more than ever (May 2010)

Text Messaging Becomes Centerpiece Communication

Published by Pew Internet & American Life Project
The mobile phone has become the favored communication hub for the majority of American teens. And texting is the preferred channel of basic communication between teens and their friends with phone calls coming in second on the list. Some 75% of 12-17 year-olds now own cell phones, up from 45% in 2004. Those phones have become indispensable tools in teen communication patterns.

Fully 72% of all teens (88% of teen cell phone users) are text-messagers. That is a sharp rise from the 51% of teens who were texters in 2006. More than half of teens (54%) are daily texters. Of all teens, the frequency of texting has overtaken all common forms of interaction with their friends.

1-in-3 teens sends more than 100 text messages a day, or 3000 texts a month.

2/3 of teens texters say they are more likely to use their cell phones to text their friends than talk to them to them by cell phone.

Among those teen texters:
* Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, or 1,500 texts a month, and one in three send more than 100 texts a day, or more than 3,000 texts a month.
* 15% of teens who are texters send more than 200 texts a day, or more than 6,000 texts a month.
* Boys typically send and receive 30 texts a day; girls typically send and receive 80 messages per day.
* Teen texters ages 12-13 typically send and receive 20 texts a day.
* 14-17 year-old texters typically send and receive 60 text messages a day.
* Older girls who text are the most active, with 14-17 year-old girls typically sending 100 or more messages a day or more than 3,000 texts a month.
* However, while many teens are avid texters, a substantial minority are not. One-fifth of teen texters (22%) send and receive just one to 10 texts a day or 30 to 300 texts a month.

Calling is still a central function of the cell phone for teens, and for many teens voice is the primary mode of conversing with their parents (surprise, surprise).

CALL STATISTICS
Teens typically make or receive five calls a day. White teens typically make or receive four calls a day, or around 120 calls a month, while black teens exchange seven calls a day or about 210 calls a month and Hispanic teens typically make and receive five calls a day or about 150 calls a month.

TEEN GIRLS SKEW THE RESULTS
Girls more fully embrace most aspects of cell phone-based communication.

As we see with other communicative technologies and applications, girls are more likely than boys to use both text messaging and voice calling and are likely to do each more frequently.

* Girls typically send and receive 80 texts a day; boys send and receive 30.
* 86% of girls text message friends several times a day; 64% of boys do the same.
* 59% of girls call friends on their cell phone every day; 42% of boys call friends daily on their cell phone daily.

Girls are also more likely than boys to text for social reasons, to text privately and to text about school work.

* 59% of girls text several times a day to “just say hello and chat”; 42% of boys do so.
* 84% of girls have long text exchanges on personal matters; 67% of boys have similar exchanges.
* 76% of girls text about school work, while 64% of boys text about school.

PHONE USAGE AT SCHOOL
Most schools treat the phone as a disruptive force that must be managed and often excluded from the school and the classroom.

Even though most schools treat cell phones as something to be contained and regulated, teens are nevertheless still texting frequently in class.

* 12% of all students say they can have their phone at school at any time.
* 62% of all students say they can have their phone in school, just not in class.
* 24% of teens attend schools that ban all cell phones from school grounds.
* Still, 65% of cell-owning teens at schools that completely ban phones bring their phones to school every day.
* 58% of cell-owning teens at schools that ban phones have sent a text message during class.
* 43% of all teens who take their phones to school say they text in class at least once a day or more.
* 64% of teens with cell phones have texted in class; 25% have made or received a call during class time.

TEEN MOBILE INTERNET USAGE
Cell phones help bridge the digital divide by providing internet access to less privileged teens. Still, for some teens, using the internet from their mobile phone is “too expensive.”

Teens from low-income households, particularly African-Americans, are much more likely than other teens to go online using a cell phone. This is a pattern that mirrors Pew Internet Project findings about adults and their cell phones.

* 21% of teens who do not otherwise go online say they access the internet on their cell phone.
* 41% of teens from households earning less than $30,000 annually say they go online with their cell phone. Only 70% of teens in this income category have a computer in the home, compared with 92% of families from households that earn more.
* 44% of black teens and 35% of Hispanic teens use their cell phones to go online, compared with 21% of white teens.

Cell phones are seen as a mixed blessing. Parents and teens say phones make their lives safer and more convenient. Yet both also cite new tensions connected to cell phone use.

HOW TEENS USE THEIR PHONES
Cell phones are not just about calling or texting — with expanding functionality, phones have become multimedia recording devices and pocket-sized internet connected computers. Among teen cell phone owners:

Teens who have multi-purpose phones are avid users of those extra features. The most popular are taking and sharing pictures and playing music:

* 83% use their phones to take pictures.
* 64% share pictures with others.
* 60% play music on their phones.
* 46% play games on their phones.
* 32% exchange videos on their phones.
* 31% exchange instant messages on their phones.
* 27% go online for general purposes on their phones.
* 23% access social network sites on their phones.
* 21% use email on their phones.
* 11% purchase things via their phones.

UNLIMITED PLANS
Unlimited plans are tied to increases in use of the phone, while teens on “metered” plans are much more circumspect in their use of the phone.

Fully three-quarters of teen cell phone users (75%) have unlimited texting. Just 13% of teen cell phone users pay per message. Those with unlimited voice and texting plans are more likely to call others daily or more often for almost every reason we queried — to call and check in with someone, to coordinate meeting, to talk about school work or have long personal conversations. Teens with unlimited texting typically send and receive 70 texts per day, compared with 10 texts a day for teens on limited plans and five texts a day for teens who pay per message.

BOTTOM LINE
The teen segment has always pointed the way to older demographic groups being socially connected vie various channels. Texting patterns only indicate that text is the preferred method to communicate to this group of today’s consumers. They are also driving usage for their parents which will continue to help shape 35-54 year old segment.

READ MORE: Get the full Pew Internet Research Report here.

May 10, 2010 in Blog   |   No Comments

5 Billion Text Messages sent/received each month in the US. Mobile Messaging continues to show enormous uptake in SMS and MMS.

The Wireless Association (CTIA) today announced at it’s semi-annual conference its semi-annual survey results. Mobile messaging continues to grow in both text messaging (SMS) and multi-media messaging (commonly referred to by some as picture messaging or MMS).

THE HIGHLIGHTS
SMS/ Text Messaging Stats:
According to the survey, text messaging (SMS) continues to grow at an unprecedented rate: more than 822 billion text messages sent and received on carriers’ networks during the last half of 2009—amounting to almost 5 billion messages per day at the end of the year. During the 2009 calendar year, there were more than 1.5 trillion text messages reported on carriers’ networks.

MMS / Multi-Media Messaging Stats:
Wireless subscribers are also sending more pictures and other multimedia messages with their mobile devices—more than 24.2 billion MMS messages were reported for the last half of 2009. That’s more than double the number from the previous year, when only 9.3 billion were reported for the last half of 2008 – a growth of over 250% year over year growth. The growth in messaging take up is also fueling mobile marketing growth and adoption of mobile marketing by companies of all sizes.

Device Growth & Increase Data Connection:
There are now more than 257 million data-capable devices in consumers’ hands in the US – up from 228MM at the end of 2008: 50 Million are smart phones or wireless-enabled PDAs and nearly 12 million are wireless-enabled laptops, notebooks or aircards.

As of December 2009, more than 285 million wireless connections. This represents a year-over-year increase of more than 15 million.

“With wireless connections now equal to more than 91 percent of the U.S. population, mobile broadband is pivotal to ensuring all Americans are ‘digitally literate’. CTIA’s survey results show the wireless ecosystem is constantly reinventing itself, and other industries, to be more productive and efficient” said Steve Largent, president and CEO of CTIA -The Wireless Association. “Mobile broadband will increasingly play a vital role in people’s lives.”

People Still Making Calls:
Other highlights included wireless customers using more than 1.12 trillion minutes in the last half of 2009, up 38 billion from the last half of 2008—and breaking down to 6.1 billion minutes-of-use per day. Wireless service revenues for the last half of 2009 amounted to almost $77 billion—up from a little more than $75 billion in the last half of 2008.

The CTIA Semi-Annual Wireless Industry Survey results were released at International CTIA WIRELESS 2010. For more survey information, please visit: http://www.ctia.org/advocacy/research/index.cfm/AID/10316

POSTED: March 23, 2010 (LIVE FROM CTIA)

March 23, 2010 in Blog   |   2 Comments

SMS Preferred Mode of Communication on Mobile

New research continues to point to huge increases in preference for SMS over other forms of mobile communication.

According to a survey conducted by Tekelec (a messaging company powering telecom operator applications), 60% of 45 year olds were found to be just as likely to use SMS as they were to make voice calls from their mobile device. The survey of 500 people in North American and Europe also found that text messaging is gaining on email as the preferred means of daily international communication, with 32% of responses across all ages preferring SMS, compared to 33% for email. And nearly a third of respondents said their use of SMS would increase in 2010.

In addition, more than 80 percent of respondents across all age groups thought they would get a quicker response from a text than from an email or voice message. Women preferred to let their fingers do the talking, with 40% describing themselves as ‘mainly texter’, compared to 30% of men.

One more difference between the sexes: women were more likely to engage in TV voting via text, with 25% versus just 14% of men engaging in such behavior.

But those under 35 were the most likely age group to vote via text, with 16% of them saying they do so, followed by 9% of 35-44 year olds, and 7% of those 45 and older. However, 35-44 year olds are the largest consumers of news and sports by text at 18% compared to 17% for those under 35, and only 8% for those over 45.

SMS – A look ahead at growth for M2M (machine-to-machine)

AT&T and Verizon Wireless nearly doubled their text message traffic from third-quarter 2008 to third-quarter 2009, showing that SMS continues to become even more pervasive.

While person-to-person (P2P) messages will keep increasing, the next major growth area is in fact machine-to-machine (M2M) SMS.

ABI Research recently released data showing that M2M SMS and MMS message volume will have a compound annual growth rate of 40.06 percent from 2008 to 2014 (“Mobile Messaging Services: SMS, MMS, Mobile Email, and Mobile IM,” 4Q 2009).

Brands can capitalize on SMS M2M to more rapidly meet their customers’ needs. For example, vending machines located anywhere with cellular reception can send texts when inventory is low, rapidly and affordably assuring that goods remain in stock. M2M will open up an entirely new growth area as new solutions focused on cost savings emerge.

Bottom Line: SMS & M2M will bring huge growth in mobile over the next decade as consumer prefer SMS for their mobile communication.

January 12, 2010 in Blog   |   1 Comment

Google Analytics adds Mobile Analytics to Reporting

According to Google’s blog, Google Analytics will now include reporting for mobile Websites and mobile apps with a new soon-to-be-released server-side code-snippet in the coming weeks.  This will allow Google Analytics to track traffic to your mobile website from all web-enabled devices, whether or not the device runs JavaScript.  The release is reported to support PHP, Perl, JSP and ASPX-based sites, and will be in addition to allowing users to track visits to their regular website coming from high-end, Javascript enabled phones.

In addition to expanded mobile reporting, Apple’s iPhone and Android mobile application developers can now track how users engage with apps. For Android devices, usage can be tied back to ad campaigns: from ad to marketplace to download to engagement. In the future, Google promises the ability to see breakout data on mobile devices and carriers in the new “mobile reports” area of the Visitors section.

While it has taken some time for this to be introduced, it certainly is a welcomed improvement. The ability to include Mobile Analytics to further help break out ROI and Campaign Response Rates will allow marketers to see the value of delivering converts through mobile communication and applications. Mobile publishers and advertisers using this solution will be thrilled to have these new Mobile Analytic tools at their finger tips.

QWASI offers advanced mobile analytics and mobile reporting so clients can have a complete view of the mobile ecosystem and their customers. Contact QWASI today for more information @ 877-747-9274.

October 22, 2009 in Blog   |   No Comments

Text Message Statistics – October 2009

Text messaging continues to be enormously popular in the US reaching new levels every month.

More than 740 billion text messages carried on carriers’ networks during the first half of 2009. That’s an average of 4.1 BILLION text messages sent/received each day. That’s nearly double the number from last year, when only 385 billion text messages were reported for the first half of 2008.

Wireless subscribers are also sending more pictures and other multi-media messages with their mobile devices—more than 10.3 billion MMS messages were reported for the first half of 2009, up from 4.7 billion in mid-year 2008. MMS stands for MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service and more commonly referred to as ‘Picture Messaging’ to subscribers. iPhone users in the US recently received access to MMS through AT&T last month (read our post: iPhone finally gets MMS). For more information on MMS, see What is MMS post.

Just last year, Nielson Mobile released important trends showing how Texting outpaces Voice as the number one activity on a cell phone.

For the latest CTIA Wireless Carrier Survey, click here.

October 7, 2009 in Blog   |   1 Comment