Will text for food

Office workers used to be judged by the speed and quality of touch typing. The popularity of mobile phones with younger generations is ushering in a new metric – the number of composed text messages each month. Youthful fingers made recent headlines when a 13-year-old California student hammered out 14,528 text messages to her friends in one month. Her father has a 140-page online statement from the wireless carrier to prove it. Fortunately, the frantic fingers were covered by an unlimited text plan.
In a January 2009 BBC interview, Intel’s mobile chief Anand Chandrasekher said the behaviors of younger texters are migrating into other common activities. He noted that the under-25 crowd are more likely to say they use their thumb to ring a doorbell instead of the pointer finger most-used by the over-25 generations.
As mobile messaging devices become pervasive, will a cultural shift from surgical facelifts and tummy tucks move to medically sculpted fingertips optimized for mobile texting speed become fashionable? Should speed texting become an officially sanctioned sport? We hope not. But it’s clear that texting is an opportunity for cost-conscious communications over a mobile device and an opportunity for mobile marketers looking to connect with device-wielding consumers.
In November, 2007 and December, 2008, ABI Research conducted online surveys with more than 1000 U.S. mobile phone users between the ages of 14 and 59 to gauge their use of text messaging on their mobile phones and their receptiveness towards mobile marketing among other things. The surveys indicate that frequent text messaging is becoming more common among all mobile phone users. In 2007, 35% of all respondents reported that they use text messaging on their phones at least once a day, while a significantly higher 47% do so in 2008 results. Not surprisingly, this varies by age. Significantly higher percents of younger respondents engage in daily texting vs. their older counterparts. In the 2008 survey, 68% of those under the age of 35 report that they text at least once a day, with over three-quarters (77%) of those under 25 texting daily. Several more interesting trends related to mobile marketing are appearing.