Brits a nation of text addicts

Using our mobiles for so much more than chatting

29 July 2008 12:52 GMT / By Katie Scott

Nearly 1.5 billion (1,492,400,769) text messages (SMS) were sent per week between January and May 2008 in the UK.

This is according to the latest figures from the Mobile Data Association.

It seems we Brits are enjoying having the facilities on our mobiles to do more than just chat, with texting, picture taking and surfing the web all on the rise.

The non-profit industry association said year-on-year growth for text messages sent from May 2007 to May 2008 was 30%.

"SMS has established itself as a true social connecting tool and continues to have mass consumer appeal", it said in a statement.

And the MDA expects to see SMS growth continue to rise by about 30% in 2008, driven by all-inclusive tariffs and lower roaming charges.

Multimedia messaging is also up with more than 10 million (10,734,555) pictures and video messages (MMS) sent during the same period per week.

This is a year on year growth of 30%.

"Picture and video messaging volumes are gathering real pace", said MDA Chairman Steve Reynolds.

"The proliferation of camera enabled devices has been key, but improved and automated settings around MMS set up have made the process simpler for the end user."

Mobile Internet is expected to grow by 20% in 2009, driven by sales of internet enabled devices such as the iPhone and Nokia N95.

"There are powerful signs all around that mobile Internet access will supersede traditional PC access. The MDA predicts that mobile Internet will become a true rival for traditional desktop Internet access", the organisation concluded.

Full tags

Phones, Mobile phone industry, Statistics, Biz, Texting, Apple, iPhone, Nokia