Interesting mobile and SMS statistics

I recently had to do some research on the mobile industry and I thought I would share some of the most interesting statements I found that caught my attention. The sources of these were either from a recent mobile market report or a recent article about mobile that was published within the past few months.

I think it’s safe to say that the mobile web, text messaging, and mobile marketing are seeing some dramatic changes while growing in popularity worldwide. Here are some of my findings in no particular order:

More people now have a mobile phone than an Internet-connected PC in the United States and globally.

There are more than 255 million mobile phone users in the U.S., roughly 85% of the U.S. population.

On average, small banner ads on mobile devices produce the same level of brand recall as the typical 30-second TV spot.

The number of monthly unique users of the mobile web increased 73% from May 06 (23.4 million) to May 08 (40.4 million).

Text messages are read by 94% of their recipients. (I think the other 6% are people that do not know how to check their text messages)

50% of SMS users are aged 35+, and 75% are aged 25+.

AT&T shattered its own record for text messaging during the 6th season of American Idol and recorded more than 78 million text messages, breaking last year’s record of 64.5 million text messages.

61% of downloadable mobile application revenues come from repeat purchases.

Smartphone devices represented around 10% of the global mobile phone market by units in 2007, with annual growth of 60% making them one of the fastest growing segments of the technology industry.

18 to 34 year-olds are the highest adopters of smartphones.

ESPN’s mobile NFL section at one point topped the PC NFL section’s 4.5m visits with 4.9m visits. The mobile site is seeing over 200% growth year over year.

Bank of America has tallied up more than 1 million unique active mobile banking customers since it launched its mobile-banking services last year, with over 100,000 people using their mobile services on peak days.

Almost two-thirds of 2,000 survey participants stated they would consider purchasing movie tickets, take-out food and travel tickets via a mobile phone.

If you come across any other interesting mobile statistics or studies, please post them in the comments.

If you are an agency or individual looking for mobile development or mobile marketing help, feel free to contact TigerSpike or send me an email directly. TigerSpike is an award winning digital services company that specializes in the mobile space and they recently opened an office in New York. (Disclaimer: I am currently interning for TigerSpike)