The new data shows continued growth of both metrics but more interestingly highlights clear trends in the way both businesses and consumers recognise the respective merits of SMS compared to MMS.

Consumers have without question made mobile messaging their own; it connects friends and family, it feeds pictures, video or messages to social media tools. Both SMS and MMS now have a clear place in the connected lives of UK mobile owners.

The trend observed by the MDA in 2008 was the distinct and different uses of SMS vs MMS adopted by consumers. Users clearly see value and use the two technologies in different ways. While SMS is used for conversational activity, MMS is much more ‘event’ driven, and this was underlined by the seasonal use of both technologies during the festive period.

160 characters vs. a thousand words

The data below highlights the trend for MMS being used for ‘an event’, Christmas day and New Years Eve being great examples. On Christmas Day a total of 4.4 million MMS messages were sent or 3,000 messages every minute.

Christmas Day 2008	Increase on last year	New Years Eve 2008/9	Increase on last year
SMS 337,210,764	26%	SMS 397,878,407	37%
MMS 4,464,163	38%	MMS 2,690,898	36%

If we examine MMS volumes in November and December, it is clear the increase is associated with the seasonal event:

MMS month on month increases driven by seasonal ‘event’: 

2008		2007
November	45,371,401	November	37,880,496
December	56,751,303	December	57,622,559
% Increase	25%	% Increase	52%

It is clear that MMS and SMS will continue to co-exist and be complementary technologies. Based on these trends it is unlikely that MMS will supersede SMS as the volume of ‘conversational’ messages will always be greater than those perceived as ‘event’ driven requiring a video or picture message. In 2008 MMS has achieved significant momentum and the commitment from mobile operators to offer competitive bundled tariffs will see MMS volumes continue to grow.

Speaking about the report findings and data trends, The Mobile Data Association Chairman, Steve Reynolds, said: "It’s fascinating to see the evolution of mobile technology, most compelling is the way users define its use and application. The idea that MMS has a distinct role compared to SMS is a great example. It further highlights the enjoyment that mobile technologies bring us all; the ability to connect people through an event or occasion makes mobile an incredibly powerful part of people’s lives."

Q4 2008 Statistical findings

The MDA reports are unique as they report historical user data, not estimates or predictions, the figures are aggregated from all UK mobile operators.

The report highlights two key areas of mobile data usage:
1. Text messaging (SMS)
2. Picture and Video messaging (MMS)

Text Messaging (SMS)
Total number of text messages (SMS) sent in:
2008 total 78.9 billion
2007 total 56.9 billion
2006 total 41.8 billion

These statistics can be broken down as follows in 2008:
Year on year growth (2008 vs 2007): 38% growth
Number of text messages sent per day: 216 million
Average number of text messages sent per person: 1,213 (based 65 million active UK mobile devices)

Video and Picture messages (MMS)
Total number of picture messages (MMS) sent in:
2008 total 553 million
2007 total 449 million
2006 total 336 million

These statistics can be broken down as follows in 2008:
Year on year growth (2008 vs 2007): 23% growth
Number of MMS messages sent per day: 1.5 million

Assessing the findings of the MDA’s Q4 report, Rob Bamforth, Principal Analyst at Quocirca, said: "Messaging on the move continues to grow and as it does the reasons or purposes widen. While SMS messages allow for quick simple voice call replacement, MMS has different drivers.  These often revolve around more specific needs or events. A spike in seasonal use demonstrates one such example but there are others.  Celebrations, holidays, and other events are particular applications that will drive more sophisticated use that fits well with MMS and extends messaging beyond simple text to other media."