Over a Third of US Cellphone Owners Use SMS Every Day

Online phone retailer, Wirefly has published the results of its recently completed behavioral survey on consumer text messaging. Compiled through a survey of thousands of US-based cell phone users, the Wirefly.com research confirmed the rapid growth in text messaging usage, with 36% of respondents classifying themselves as heavy users - sending anywhere from one a day to hundreds per month. An additional 29% send fewer than 25 text messages a month, and the other 35% saying they never take advantage of text messaging capabilities. Within the top-third heavy user category, the majority of respondents said that they send more than 100 text messages a month:

37% sent between 25-100 text messages a month;
23% sent 101-250;
20% sent 251-500; and,
20% sent more than 500.

The Wirefly survey shows that the growth of text messaging continues to be fueled by personal and non-professional uses. Of the 65% of customers who do send text messages, a huge majority use them only to contact friends, spouses or significant others. Just 8% of text message users report sending a ‘text’ to a co-worker or for professional reasons.According to the survey, Wirefly discovered that texting takes place only within a small social circle:

48% - send messages to just 2-5 people;
21% - expand that pool to 6-10; and,
20% - spread their messages around to more than 10 recipients.

In addition and perhaps most interesting, the Wirefly data seems to refute the wide-spread notion that text messaging is generally a medium for brief, choppy communication. A full 35% of those who do send text messages reported a typical message length of “several sentences.” This option beat out “one word” (4%), “several words” (33%), and “one sentence” (28%).

Motives for text messaging range from simply “responding to a received message” (59%), to “as a substitute for a phone call” (49%) or “a quick hello” (48%). And nearly a fifth of all text messagers (17%) claimed to have flirted via text or for romantic purposes. Finally, the primary reason for choosing to send a text message rather than placing a call highlights the flexibility and convenience of texting:

52% - text instead of calling when “the situation makes talking on the phone difficult”;
23% - involved “lack of time” for a call;
15% - simply “prefer text messaging to talking”; and,
10% - attempting to avoid speaking with a specific person.

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