| Text Messaging Catching On in America by Anthony Wayne Editor -- Cool Ringtones Blog Philadelphia - Once considered a teenage fad, text messagingpopularity in the United States is rising dramatically.According to The Wall Street Journal, 4.7 billion text messageswere sent in the USA in December, 2004 compared to 2.1 billionin December, 2003. In fact, text messaging is entering all aspects of our society,even relationships. The San Francisco Chronicle reports thatnine percent of singles have even admitted to breaking up withtheir significant others via text message. Thirty percent oftext users said that they've continued an argument by textmessage; probably part of the same group that ultimatelycontributed to the break ups. The applications for text messaging promotions are alsoincreasing just as quickly. Major League Baseball offers a textmessage service that enables its fans to catch up on the latestnews and results of their favorite team. There are also customcell phone wallpapers of team logos and unique actual gamerecorded play-by-play ringtones in the professional baseballoffering. Live 8, which sponsored the single biggest textmessaging promotion in history, garnered 26 million texts lastmonth supporting increased government aid to poor Africancountries. The opportunities for promoters appear to only belimited by one's imagination. One of the more interesting applications that we've seen is onebeing sold to radio stations by Chicago-based Spark NetworkServices. Spark, which got its start by offering 900-numberbased radio voice personal datelines, is now selling a suite oftext messaging products called PromoTXTRadio. The text messagingproducts allow radio stations to offer votelines, sweepstakes,song dedications, station play lists, traffic reports, andbreaking news via text message. It even allows radio stations tooffer their station jingles to be played as cell phone ringtones. Still, Americans have a long way to go to catch their Asianbrethren when it comes to the growing phenomenon of textmessaging. CTIA-The Wireless Association, estimates that theaverage Chinese cell phone user sent 651 text messages last yearcompared to just 203 for US wireless users. C U L8r. |
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