There was a turning point a couple of years ago when it was suddenly undeniable: It was either text message or be left behind. If you were paying for it by the message, you suddenly had to find a plan, because you started having more and more friends that wouldn’t talk any other way. Well, we’re wondering if it has finally reached that point in the U.K. – or if it’s yet to come.
A report today from the Mobile Data Association shows that, while texting is becoming increasingly popular in the United Kingdom, it is still lagging behind the U.S.
According to the report, in 2009 the UK sent an average of 265 million text messages and 1.6 million picture messages daily. Over the entirety of 2009, 96.8 billion text messages were sent.
When we first saw the data, we weren’t sure if we should be impressed or unenthusiastic, so we quickly ran the numbers. An October report put the US daily text message average at a jaw-dropping 4.1 billion messages. When adjusted for population, this comes out to just about 14 text messages per person per day. The UK average comes out to just over four text messages per person per day.
Texting seems like it might not have gotten to a critical mass quite yet over there, has it?
