As a country Australia is sending far more SMS messages than we were just a couple of years back. Below we take a look at some of the emerging trends and staggering figures that highlight the growth of mobile phone usage across Australia. Did you know that in 2010 there was a 300% increase in overall SMS/MMS message volumes across the country? Everyone, from young children to old grandparents, knows how to send a text message today. Figures compiled by mobicity.com show that most Australians spend 35 minutes a day sending text messages. In 2010, 8 million text messages were sent across Australia on Valentine’s Day. Teenagers send on average 5 text messages a day – 83% of all Australian teens own a mobile phone. Half of these teens do not turn their phone off at night and a quarter of them admit to replying to texts they receive at night immediately: 10% of these teens admit to receiving text messages that wake them up each night. But it’s not just young people who send text messages – figures show that Australian seniors send on average one text message a day, too. This is just a snap shot of the volume of SMS messages that are being sent across Australia each and every day. As a nation we are one of the most mobile-tech savvy: 43% of Australians own a Smartphone and 26% of all Australians participate in mobile social networking and 32% of Australians own an Apple iPhone. With such impressive growth rates it is little wonder then that more and more brands are using mobile and SMS messaging in particular as an effective marketing channel.
