Teens Send/Receive 3,700 Monthly Texts

January 6, 2011

nielsen-sms-per-month-by-age-jan11.gifUS mobile phone owners age 13-17 send and receive an average of 3,705 texts per month, according to new data from The Nielsen Company. This is more than double the next-highest average number of texts sent and received in average month, 1,707, performed by 18-to-24-year-olds.

Younger mobile phone users definitely text far more often than older users, as the only other age group to average more than 1,000 texts per month is 0-12-year-olds (1,178). Text usage starts rapidly dropping among older age brackets, with 25-to-34-year-old mobile phone users sending and receiving an average of 758 per month. This number drops sequentially with each succeeding age bracket, hitting a low of 41 among mobile phone users 65 and older.

Women Talk, Text More than Men

nielsen-phone-usage-women-v-men-jan11.gifOn average, female mobile phone users talk 28% more than men, spending 818 minutes per month compared to 640 minutes per month. In addition, female mobile phone users text 29% more than men, sending and receiving an average of 716 texts per month compared to 555 for male users.

Voice Minutes Remain Stable, Text Minutes Explode

nielsen-mobile-usage-jan-2011.JPGThe number of monthly voice minutes used by US mobile phone owners remained fairly stable between January 2005 and September 2010, ranging between roughly 600 and 700 throughout the year. However, the average number of monthly SMS texts rose from less than 100 to more than 600 by year’s end (figures based on MarketingCharts analysis of Nielsen chart).

Other Figures

  • The top 5 US mobile phones are Apple iPhone 3GS, Samsung SCH-U450, Motorola Droid, RIM Blackberry 8500 series, and Apple iPhone 4.
  • 31% of US mobile subscribers have smartphones.
  • There are 228 million mobile phone users age 13 and up in the US.
  • The US has 83.2 million mobile phone web users.
  • The average number of apps that US smartphone app downloaders have on their phones is 27.
  • The top 5 US mobile phone video channels are YouTube, Fox, Comedy Central, ESPN, and MTV.

Text Coupons Most Popular Retail-related Consumer Mobile Activity

Looking at a variety of retail-related consumer mobile activities, text coupons lead both in terms of current engagement (25%) and planned engagement in the next 12 months (47%), according to recent data from IHL Group. Probably due to the high percentage of consumers who will already be using mobile text coupons within 12 months, planned engagement within 12 to 24 months is only 9%, tied for second-lowest with consumer self-checkout.

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