SMS Continues Global Rampage
With all the hype around MMS and 3G it is easy to forget about good old SMS. Except of course if you are a wireless subscriber, in which case you’re oblivious to MMS and 3G but completely enthralled by SMS. In China Coke is using SMS to measure how well users understand their latest TV campaign. Ad viewers are urged to send a text message answering 5 questions about the ad in exchange for a chance to win a free mobile phone. Over a 30 day period they have received 200,000 SMS entries. The latest figures from the UK show person-to-person text messaging growth has yet to slow down. In Febraury 2003 wireless subscribers exchanged 1.53 billion text messages, that’s an average of 55 million per day. The US is far behind the curve, but not for long. In November 2002 SMS service provider InphoMatch reported that they delivered 1 billion inter-carrier text messages over the past year. Now that US carriers are marketing bundles of text messages we should see usage picking up faster and possibly match UK levels in 12 to 18 months.
