Did you know that "Wassup" is the most popular short messaging service (SMS) message going, followed by "Please call" and "On my way"? Well, it's true and there's a sizeable segment of urban mobile users who even feel that SMS will eventually replace
e-mail. They are the hardened ones who prefer mobile greetings to conventional cards (this Diwali, over 5 million mobile greetings were sent in Delhi alone). And, not surprisingly, almost everyone has sent jokes over SMS.
Compulsive SMSers wishing to know more about the mania gripping the country can get their own copy of the Samsung N500 SMS survey, conducted in October this year in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. Or one can read on. The survey, whose sample base was 1,500 cellphone users including both men and women between the ages 18-50, breaks some myths and confirms a few others on urban SMSing habits.
According to the survey, messaging is a smart, useful tool for most respondents, one that reduces their monthly talk time. Over two-thirds of the respondents cited "convenience" as a major reason for sending SMS, while 58 per cent felt "cost-effectiveness" was also a driver. In comparison, SMS romance isn't too hot, with less than a fifth of the respondents admitting they have been proposed to over the mobile.
Contrary to expectations, SMSing is more common in Delhi, followed by metros like Bangalore and Mumbai. And women in Delhi and Bangalore are more adept with their fingers, compared to those in the country's financial capital. Obviously, students send and receive more messages than the salaried class. And nearly half of the respondents had either fought or argued over SMS.
Such micro details may look inane but are increasingly becoming important to cellphone makers and mobile service providers, thanks to the staggering growth rates. It's been a long time since the first message was sent from a PC to a mobile over the Vodafone gsm network in the UK a decade ago. Global SMS traffic is estimated to reach a whopping 329 billion a day by Q2 of next year. In India, the daily traffic has more than doubled to 7 million within 12 months and is likely to cross the 10 million mark by next year.
Although SMS only contributes 2-3 per cent of the current revenues (Rs 4,700 crore in 2001-02) earned by Indian service providers, the potential looks immense. Take the case of Europe, where the corresponding figure is 10 per cent. "We are hoping that SMS revenues in the country will grow to 4.5 per cent of our total turnover in the next year and to six per cent over the next two years," says Anil Nayar, president, mobility, Bharti Televentures.
Service providers also feel that growth could be spurred by users now trying to access more content through their mobile phones, instead of just messaging each other. "Confirming air tickets, checking for changed phone numbers and accessing other niche information over the mobile is even now on the rise," says Harit Nagpal, vice-president, sales and marketing, Hutchison Essar Telecom.
And this is what prompted Samsung to launch its SMS-friendly N500 handset (price: Rs 10,000) in August this year. Explains Rajeev Sethi, marketing manager, Samsung Telecom, "Seeing the SMSing rage, we decided to make messaging more friendly. We also decided to map our core target audience, and conducted this survey to study SMS trends in the main metros."
But there are still a few hitches before SMSing becomes a national "time pass". For one, although 70 per cent of Indian cellphone users admit to having used the SMS facility, it still cannot hope to replace voice. "I would treat SMS as a value addition provided by the operators. SMS is not replacing voice. If I have to talk, I have to talk," asserts Nagpal.
Then there's the cost factor, and SMS bills can easily be cause for the shivers. Remember the much-publicised story of self-confessed SMS junkie and author Shobha De's Rs 27,000 mobile bill! The reason: while incoming messages are free, the price for outgoing ones varies between Re 1 and Rs 1.50 per message. For those who use cash cards, the rate could go up to Rs 2. And, don't bother SMSing while travelling to a different city, because it could be twice as much within India and as much as 10 times on foreign shores.
Compare this to a voice call. Depending on your plan, the cost for a one-minute call (with a 30 second pulse, which means you are billed every 30 seconds) varies between Re 1 and Rs 2.40 locally. Roaming rates are pegged at Rs 3 per minute. So the next time you want to say "wassup" to your neighbour, it might be a better idea to go over or simply call and say Hi!
Users are also cagey about value-added services and Bharti's Nayar himself admits that person-to-person messaging constitutes 80 per cent of the total traffic with the remaining 20 per cent taken up by information services like tune downloads and cricket info. The Samsung survey also reached similar conclusions; for instance, even in a cricket-crazy country like India, only 12 per cent of respondents said they check live scores over SMS.
All this could change, though, with the next technological leap promising to alter your life—the new world of MMS or multimedia messaging service. With MMS, not only can you chat, send text messages and access e-mail through your mobile phone, you can even send pictures to friends, provided they too have a compatible handset. Today, there are only a few MMS-enabled models in the domestic market (priced between Rs 7,000-14,000). And there are only two operators, Idea in Delhi and BPL in Mumbai, providing MMS facility to subscribers. Oh, and did we forget to mention this, it costs Rs 5 per message.