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Mobile Info

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In the past 3-4 years there has been a rapid growth in the use of mobile data services globally. Initially this growth has primarily come from the European and Asian markets but now, with upwards of 2 billion messages being transmitted per month in the U.S. alone, the U.S. market is showing signs of strong growth as well. The greatest growth worldwide has been in the use of the Short Message Service (SMS) which allows people to send and receive messages up to 160 characters. The SMS revolution has reached all parts of peoples lives from dating and product marketing applications through to banking alerts and reservation systems.

SMS in the United States

Currently, with a wireless subscriber base of over 190 million people, the United States is well-poised to leverage SMS technology.

In 2005 Over 40% of wireless subscribers are consuming mobile data services and that continues to grow at about 2-3% per month as new services continue to proliferate.

When AT&T Wireless launched its first SMS offering in 2001, 700,000 customers signed on for the service within the first 10 weeks[1]. By 2003, 17 million Americans had subscribed to mobile data services, representing a 31% increase from the previous year. During 2005 this number grew to over 70 million users[2]. As a result, revenue from SMS growth is expected to reach $1.3 billion 2006, surpassing any other premium wireless service[3].

SMS – The New Marketing Tool

Given this high usage rate of SMS technology, advertisers are quickly adopting this new medium of marketing. Already in June 2002, 12% of mobile phone users in North America received a SMS advertisement. 2% of these ad recipients made a purchase as a direct result[4].

Mobile marketing has tremendous branding value. Mobile Marketing Association found there is a 71%-96% consumer recall rate from mobile marketing campaigns. 43% of participants felt that campaigns where they received an SMS have had a positive impact on the advertised brand. While 40% of consumers indicated they would follow a brand prompt by visiting a website or view an ad. These statistics solidify the belief that SMS will become an important new marketing tool[5].

Beyond SMS

Fact is, as more improvements are made in mobile phone technology, more mobile data applications will be used. Currently 3.2 million mobile subscribers have IP-based mobile phones allowing internet browsing. This number is expected to increase to over 52 million by 2007[6]. This will change the dynamic of internet users as they will be able to access data anywhere at anytime, is your organization ready for the next evolution of the internet?

Contact fountain mobile to find out how you can be a leader in the mobile revolution.

References

  • 1. www.mbusinessdaily.com/magazine/story/new/05[back]
  • 2. The Yankee Group, October 2003. via Emarketer[back]
  • 3. The Yankee Group. From Industry Insider by the Investext Group.[back]
  • 4. A.T. Kearney/ University of Cambridge: Judge Institute of Management, August 2002.[back]
  • 5. Mobile Marketers Treading With Caution. As seen in eMarketer.[back]
  • 6. “4G mobile wireless subscribers, IP based technologies” Visant Strategies Newsletter. [back]

Last updated: 2006-01-26

 
Within the next three years, there will be 70 million SMS users in the U.S. Will you be ready to interact with them?