karl
April 29th, 2013, 08:40 AM
Messaging applications such as BBM and WhatsApp have overtaken text messages for the first time, and will represent double the volume of SMS by the end of the year, research suggests.
According to analysts Informa, 19billion chat messages were sent every day via applications, compared to 17.6billion texts.
And by the end of 2013, Informa estimates that 41 billion such ‘over-the-top’ digital messages will be sent every day, compared with an average of 19.5 billion SMS messages.
Although there are 3.5billion SMS users and just 586m users of apps such as WhatsApp, negligible prices make them much more likely to send messages.
Each app user sent an average of 32.6 messages a day, compared with just five SMS messages per day per user.
Although BBM launched in 2007, the growth of smartphones and services such as WhatsApp, which charge users less than a pound per year for unlimited messaging, has precipitated a rapid take-off in usage.
Full story here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10024959/Chat-apps-overtake-texting.html
According to analysts Informa, 19billion chat messages were sent every day via applications, compared to 17.6billion texts.
And by the end of 2013, Informa estimates that 41 billion such ‘over-the-top’ digital messages will be sent every day, compared with an average of 19.5 billion SMS messages.
Although there are 3.5billion SMS users and just 586m users of apps such as WhatsApp, negligible prices make them much more likely to send messages.
Each app user sent an average of 32.6 messages a day, compared with just five SMS messages per day per user.
Although BBM launched in 2007, the growth of smartphones and services such as WhatsApp, which charge users less than a pound per year for unlimited messaging, has precipitated a rapid take-off in usage.
Full story here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10024959/Chat-apps-overtake-texting.html