Text messaging broke through the 200 million messages per day barrier for the first time in the UK over Christmas, as UK consumers turned to their phone to send seasons greetings to friends and family.
Figures announced today by the Mobile Data Association (MDA) reveal that 205 million person-to-person texts were sent on Christmas Day, an average of 8 million texts per hour. The figures for New Years Day were even higher, with an incredible 214 million Person to person text messages sent between midnight, 31 December 2006 and midnight, 1 January 2007, an average of 9m texts per hour. This is the highest daily total ever recorded by the MDA, and represents a 29% increase on the figure for New Years Day 2006 of 165 million texts.
The MDA has forecast that figures will continue to rise this year, to deliver an annual total of 45 billion text messages for 2007, with an average of 3.75 billion messages per month, and 123 million messages per day, being sent.
More stats on text messaging, including monthly figures, here.