The marketing text message could soon be joining the video player, the 8-track and even the CD in the technology dustbin, after a sharp decline in SMS over the festive period has fuelled predictions that the medium’s days are numbered.
The marketing text message could soon be joining the video player, the 8-track and even the CD in the technology dustbin after a sharp decline in SMS over the festive period has fuelled predictions that the medium’s days are numbered.
A multi-million pound SMS marketing industry has grown out of the medium, initially designed to exploit spare capacity on the mobile networks. And, although global mobile marketing adspend is predicted to hit $20.6bn by 2015, it seems the SMS sector is unlikely to benefit.
According to the latest figures, telecoms operators across Europe recorded drops in the number of text messages being sent as users switched to social media, email and instant messaging instead.
Analysts at Citigroup said that the decline in Christmas texts – traditionally one of the busiest days of the year as people send Christmas greetings to friends and family – was steepest in markets where SMS was adopted the earliest, such as Finland, which suffered a drop of 22%, according to data it cited from Sonera, the Finnish telecoms company.
Citigroup head of telecoms research Simon Weeden said: “The true impact of changes in behaviour around Facebook, Twitter and Apple’s latest move to provide automatic text rerouting through iMessenger have not yet been felt.”
The rise of the smartphone means customers can now use messaging programmes such as Skype and WhatsApp, as well as social media platforms and email to keep in touch.
Apple has also rerouted texts from iPhones on to its own iMessaging system when sent to other iPhone users, which Citigroup predicts will have its biggest impact in 2012 following the launch of the iPhone 4S model at the end of last year.
