SMS Aging Gracefully
By
Cappy on 13 January 2010
SMS Aging Gracefully: Older Consumers Using SMS As Much As Voice
Recent research released by Tekelec [http://www.tekelec.com/] has shown that 60% of 45 year-olds were just as likely to use SMS as they were voice calling on their mobile devices [http://www.qwasi.com/news/blog/sms-preferred-mode-of-communication-on-mobile.htm]. SMS is also increasing in popularity when compared to email [http://blog.mediafriendsinc.com/2009/12/16/sms-voice-or-email-its-sms/] as the daily preferred means of communication. Another interesting finding of the study was that > 80% of the respondents believed that they would receive a response more quickly via SMS than either voice message or email. And over a third of them indicated their SMS use would likely increase in the coming year. This bodes well not only for the carriers but also for services that depend upon SMS as a means for communication as well as new applications of SMS combined with traditional technology.
Clearly more and more research shows [http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10038634-94.html] that SMS is becoming more popular with all age groups as a the de-facto means of instant communication. And consumers want to use their current devices to do it[http://blog.mediafriendsinc.com/2010/01/06/people-want-social-tv-ashlee-vance/]. But it doesn’t stop there. Devices are ABI Research [http://www.allbusiness.com/media-telecommunications/telecommunications/13318900-1.html] recently released a report showing that device-to-device (or machine-to-machine, or M2M) SMS traffic will increase more than 40% between 2008 and 2014.
It is well established that SMS has become the dominant form of communication for teens, but often the assumption has been that older users do not use SMS very much. Recent research released by Tekelec has shown that 60% of 45 year-olds were just as likely to use SMS as they were voice calling on their mobile devices. SMS is also increasing in popularity when compared to email as the daily preferred means of communication, with over 80% of the respondents believing that they would receive a response more quickly via SMS than either voice message or email. And over a third of them indicated their SMS use would likely increase in the coming year. This bodes well not only for the carriers but also for services that depend upon SMS as a means for communication as well as new applications of SMS combined with traditional technology.
Interestingly, Twitter may be having an effect on driving SMS into an older demographic. Recent data points to the fact that middle-aged users (35-44) may be the predominant demographic on the ubiquitous site. This has undoubtedly had an effect on making SMS’s 160 character limit more palatable to older users who traditionally may have found it too limiting.
Clearly more and more research shows that SMS is becoming more popular with all age groups as a the de-facto means of instant communication. And consumers want to use their current devices to do it.
Are you seeing increased adoption of SMS in older demographics among friends, family or customers? What do you think has been the motivation for this adoption?
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