I was amazed to find out recently, the volume of texting going on. What Instant messaging is to the computer, text messaging or texting is to the phone or mobile device. According to Nielson Co. in 2009, “American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008—almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a year earlier.”

Originally sent using SMS, (Short message Service) text messaging, refers to the exchange of brief written messages between fixed-line phone or mobile phone and fixed or portable devices over a network. Text Messaging now refers to messages that may contain image, video and sound content.  Texting has been a boon for the telephone companies as it gives them something more to charge for whereas much of IM is not paid for. Statistics about the use of Text Messaging say:

  • The ITU (October 2010) estimates that 6.1 trillion messages will be sent worldwide in 2010, that is triple the number sent in 2007 (1.8 trillion). That means 200 000 text messages are sent every second, earning operators US$14,000 every second (if the average text costs US$0.07)
  • The most number of texts are sent in The Philippines and the United States.
  • Portio Research (February 2010) estimates that SMS is used by four billion consumers worldwide and that worldwide SMS traffic will exceed 10 trillion in 2013.
  • The global mobile messaging business is worth over US$150 billion, and will hit US$233 billion by 2014.