Mobile on the Rise, Texting Still on Top

There’s been a flurry of articles recently on the rise of mobile devices and their imminent takeover of the tech world. Huge companies like Google are reinventing their business models for mobile, and there’s no reason small businesses shouldn’t retool their marketing models for mobile as well.

People are spending twice as much time on their phone as they were 2 years ago, and recent reports indicate that half of Americans own a smartphone. Not every small business can afford to build a smartphone app that’ll never be used. But there’s good news: Texting still tops any app or activity, even on smartphones.

In a recent study, smartphone users named text messaging as the one function they couldn’t live without, beating out internet, email, and, yes, even calling. Texting also remains the #1 most common mobile activity (68.6%), almost twice as common as the #2 and #3 activities, browsing the internet (38.6%) and using apps (37.3%).

Texting is the most essential function for smartphone users, yet ironically it’s a standard feature on even the dumbest of phones. Text marketing, then, is poised to ride the mobile wave while still catering to the half of the U.S. without smartphones. The future’s looking good.