One-third of this age group send over twenty text messages a week, with 52 percent of them saying they would opt for a mobile phone if stranded on a desert island, while only 18 percent said they would opt for TV. In Ireland, over the Christmas 2000-01 period, nearly 3,00,000 phones were sold. This means that around 60 percent of the Irish population now posses a mobile phone. And according to recent research conducted by the Financial Times, the figure for mobile phone penetration in Ireland is expected to reach 2,740,000 by 2001.

As with the development of the mobile phone business, the fact that business users comprise of the majority of those who had access to SMS technology, initially determined the ways in which it was used. As business users generally had their bills paid by the company, and the use of SMS in unified messaging (receiving, for example, SMS alerts of new e-mail) was rare, they had no particular incentive to investigate the possibilities of the cheaper text message facilities offered by GSM phones.

It was only with the onset of mass-market mobile phones and pre-paid calling services that the SMS began to grow rapidly. In the UK, pre-pay customers make twice as many SMS calls as contract-based customers.

The younger users who were attracted to pre-paid phones, such as Ready-To-Go and Speakeasy, were highly sensitive to cost. Consequently, sending a complete message for a set, low fee (and not paying for the answer), rather than entering into an expensive, open-ended conversation was a highly attractive concept. With SMS, the cost of an exchange is, in this manner, shared by both the persons involved-another highly attractive notion.

Why SMS Works

There are, of course, other qualities to SMS, which allied with the perceived financial aspects lead to text-messaging explosion at the younger end of the market.

» SMS conversations remain private, even if carried out in a public location. While many feel a taboo about speaking on their mobile when, for example in pubs, on public transport or with a group of friends, the same does not apply to text conversations.

» SMS conversations can be carried on in public spaces irrespective of the ambient noise level (clubs, pubs, etc).

» SMS allows the freedom for flirtatious exchanges without the pressure of face to face or even voice to voice contact. Users who have enjoyed the anonymity of the Internet chat rooms can find a similar experience through SMS. With the added benefit of mobility.

» SMS messages are ideal for making social arrangements, with the mobile becoming a very simplified PDA, storing appointments and addresses as text messages.

» SMS is excellent at providing 'fill-in' entertainment for periods spent in transit or waiting.

All this means that for the marketers, SMS has the advantage of providing unrivalled access to 15-24 year olds, a group that has proved extremely difficult to reach effectively through other media. If it is true, as Amárach Consulting/Irish Direct Marketing Association iMarketing (Jan 2001) report suggests, the telephone will remain the dominant interactive channel over the next few years then present patterns suggest that a large proportion of those interactions will be performed via SMS.

One of the most prevalent commercial uses of SMS to emerge has been the area of user-requested updates and alerts, either delivered through push or pull methods. Customers can either subscribe to a service that will provide regular alerts on a chosen subject (soccer scores, gold score, etc) or request information by sending a key word via SMS (lotto numbers, etc). While these type of applications are ideal for providing timely information, without recourse to less widely deployed WAP technology, they do not perhaps make for the most compelling use of SMS capabilities. Among the 15-24 year-olds, a group habituated to the Internet experience, these kind of simple interactions may prove less than attractive.

In recent times more interactive SMS applications have begun to emerge. These have, so far, been games-oriented. Those developing mobile games, however, have to deal with the special flavors of creating a gaming experience in an ultra-low bandwidth environment. Mobile games will be extremely limited in their visual or aural appeal. Input through and alphanumeric key pad is, when compared with the force feedback joystick and steering wheel devices familiar to players, extremely limited.

On the other hand, mobile games have huge advantages associated with being portable. Given the restrictions, mobile games must create what one game firm (4) has dubbed 'immersion by imagination'. In some territories, branded gaming has emerged, its novelty proving more than enough compensation for the low-bandwidth styles.