12-Feb-2012 19:13

Will Texting Survive?

Who would have believed it?

According to recent data issued late January 2012, text messaging or SMSs saw a pretty sharp decline over the Xmas and New Year periods - normally the busiest time of year for sending social texts.

So could the humble SMS text message really be dying out?

Christmas Eve is traditionally just about the busiest period for text messages but in 2011 the SMS volumes of some of the major operators in counties such as Finland and Hong Kong plummeted by double digits.

Finland saw the number of messages sent using the Sonera network on Christmas Eve drop by 2.4 million - from 10.9 million to 8.5 million & reports shows a 14% falls in Hong Kong too.

Could it be that the advent and increasing popularity of free smartphone instant messaging services like Apple’s iMessage and RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and WhatsApp has dented enthusiasm for SMSs?

With ever-growing social networking combined with generous smartphone data tariffs there may be reduced reliance on sharing information & update and greetings via SMS.

So, with the free alternatives now available, how long indeed will the old SMS technology survive?

Norman