Death of the text? Mobile phone users turn to free instant messaging as electronic communication of choice

 

 

By Ryan Kisiel

Last updated at 4:25 PM on 25th April 2011

 

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• Number of texts to 'drop by 20%' in the next two years
  
• Young people are using BlackBerrys instead of other smartphones because it has a free BBM messenger
  

Mobile text messaging could become extinct within a generation as millions of young people turn to other forms of electronic communication.

Teenagers are increasingly using instant messaging from mobile phones and social networking sites such as Facebook.

Experts predict the amount of texts sent in the UK will drop by 20 per cent in the next two years.

It comes as teenagers and students are increasingly using BlackBerrys instead of iPhones and other smartphones because the device has a free BBM messenger.

 

Cheap alternative: Teenagers and students are increasingly using BlackBerrys instead of iPhones and other smartphones because it has a free BBM messenger

 

Sales in the phone, that was once the preserve of the corporate boardroom, have increased six-fold during the last year, mainly due to being taken up by 16 to 24-year-olds.

A study for broadband provider TalkTalk found only 51 per cent of Britons in their teens or early twenties say email is their first choice of communication.

Industry experts believe that if this trend is followed into adulthood then text messaging could disappear within a generation.

 

 

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• Is there anything they DON'T know? Now websites can track your IP address to within a few hundred metres
  
• How wide does this go? Now Google devices 'found to transmit user locations back to the company'
  

 

Instant messaging is extremely similar to texting, but faster and cheaper. It is free on BlackBerry phones even for ‘pay and go’ customers and is used by 39million people across the world.

Communication consultants Mobile Youth said the main drop in texts is down to the rise in instant messaging.

Graham Brown, the firm’s managing director, said: ‘We’ve seen SMS usage fall among young people and the main driver in BlackBerry.

‘Teens and students were picking up BlackBerrys as hand-me-downs because parents were upgrading and started playing and exploring.’

Richard Windsor, a mobile analyst at Nomura, said: ‘Once text messaging starts to decline, I think it could continue to decline until it hits zero.’

‘Once text messaging starts to decline, it could continue to decline until it hits zero’

 

 

A recent report found that instant messaging will also overtake emails and make that form of contact extinct too.

It comes as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg declared that ‘email is dead’ as he launched the new instant messaging service on the social networking site last November.

The report found the electronic form of contact is already becoming 'grey mail' with the most devoted users being pensioners, followed by middle-aged Britons.

Although inboxes are still filling up daily all over the world, experts believe emails are dying out because they are too slow, too inconvenient and simply not fashionable any more.

Email took 20 years to develop into the phenomenon it is now, but could take just half as long to die out again, said report author Professor David Zeitlyn, from University Of Kent.

Experts believe people prefer the 'one and done' style of message, which is where a short message like those on Twitter, can be sent to all contacts at the same time.

Other email alternatives, such as instant messaging, texting and social networks like Facebook, are quick and easy and can be done anywhere with modern technology.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1380388/Death-text-Mobile-phone-users-turn-free-instant-messaging-electronic-communication-choice.html#ixzz1KZ3OVB5K

Just wait til Blackberry start charging for the messenger.

 

SMS are not dead, they are not dying, IM is useful if your phone has it and the person you are also contacting has it.

 

As for emails being dead hah, try telling that to my work's Outlook account

I pay £5 a month for blackberry messenger already:guitarist::guitarist::guitarist::glasses:

Guys, In Nigeria(we I unfortunately live in) Black Berry does charge for messenger every three months

i got scared that mark was back

i got scared that mark was back

 

Me too, me too.

Same haha omg

What's up with that Mark guy? Why was he banned? I've seen a load of his posts and I don't see anything banworthy...

What's up with that Mark guy? Why was he banned? I've seen a load of his posts and I don't see anything banworthy...

 

Oh, it's a long, long tale, that I doubt would make too much sense unless you were really there to experience it

 

(...that and I forget some of the details)

Oh, it's a long, long tale, that I doubt would make too much sense unless you were really there to experience it

 

(...that and I forget some of the details)

 

:cry: Sometimes I wish I had been around here longer.

Life will continue on as usual.

:cry: Sometimes I wish I had been around here longer.

 

no you dont

But going back to the original thing, SMS WILL NOT DIE.

 

(Coming from an everyday texter...)