13 January 2003
Non-SMSers on the outside
The written word, albeit digital, is in - according to survey findings by McNair Ingenuity Research. According to a national study, most adult Australians have used text messaging in a mobile, with two thirds of people aged 18 to 29 using SMS (short message service) as an every day communication tool. Over 80% of Australians have used a mobile phone, most use one regularly, and on any typical day, nearly half of adult Australians will put one of these omnipresent devices to their ear.
And while only a third of people use email for work, two thirds have used email for personal communications and 29% of Australians send and receive email every day of the year.
One-in-five Australians have tried chat software such as Messenger to talk to friends on-line and 15% of young adults use this kind of chat software regularly. One-in-six adult Australians have visited an on-line chat room and 2% of the population are regular chatters, creating an adult on-line chat community of over a quarter of a million Australians - many of whom are aged 30 to 39 years of age.
Mobile Phones
Despite the enthusiastic marketing of mobile phones to women, and particularly younger women, mobile phones are still more commonly found in the hands of a male - and in particular young affluent men. In fact, men are 30% heavier users of mobile phones than women. While the vast majority of Australians have tried using a mobile phone, many are happy to survive without one. For instance, 60% of people aged 60 and over have tried a mobile phone, but for 5% that was enough. Half of this group have access to a mobile phone for occasional use, and a third use a mobile phone at least weekly. Conversely, most people aged 18-29 use a mobile phone daily and 95% of people aged 18-29 have tried one at some stage.
Mobiles also continue to remain the toys of the affluent. A quarter of people living in households with an income of less than $50,000 per annum before tax have never used a mobile phone, compared to 12% who have never used a mobile amongst people in households with incomes of $80,000 or over. On a typical day, high income earners are more than 60% more likely to use a mobile phone than lower income earners.
SMS/ Text Messaging
Approximately a third of Australians are regular users of text messaging, and one in six has the dexterity of thumb to send SMS messages every day. Not that this form of communication is alien to the mainstream - in fact, 56% of people have tried using SMS at some stage, but 10% have tried it and not revisited this technology for the deft of single finger typing. Text messaging is the domain of the young, as the graph on the next page shows, on an average day in Australia, less than a quarter of Australians will send a text message, and only 3% of people age 60 will use it. But nearly two thirds of people aged 18-29 use text messaging on an average day.
| Proportion
of Australians using Text Messaging on a mobile phone on a typical day
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| Email for Work and Home usage A quarter of Australian use email every day at work - and nearly half of those in high income households. In fact, people age 30-49 and over are more likely to use email for work than the techno-literate 18-29. Nearly half of people age 18-39 send email for personal usage at least weekly, and on any typical day, nearly half of all affluent people will send or receive personal email. However 37% of people aged 60 and over have never used email, and only a quarter of this age group use email regularly. Chat software such as MSN Messenger and ICQ Nearly one-in-five adult Australians have tried an on-line chat tool such as Microsoft or Yahoo messenger or ICQ. This kind of chat program allows two or more people to have an electronic conversation on the computer. Both users usually have to have given permission to each other in order to converse this way. However the systems often have ways of meeting new people so they are used between both friends who know each other in person, and between people who have met through the Internet. Messenger, the most common such system, has been tried by 18% of adults, and 42% of people aged 18-29. Of this younger age group, 14% have tried Messenger but not become regular users and 16% use it at least weekly. On any given day, 5% of Australian adults access Messenger chat. Men are slightly more likely to use Messenger than women. Some 15% of people have tried other chat systems such as ICQ, and approximately 4% are regular users of chat software other than Messenger. Messenger tends to be used by younger users, while ICQ is most popular amongst those aged 30-39. Online Chat Rooms Chat rooms are open-access forums that allow people to enter into a conversation with a group of people - typically 10 to 100 people. One-in-five adult males have tried an on-line chat room, compared to one-in-ten women. Chat forums are not entirely the domain of the young. While 35% of people aged 18-29 have tried chat, most of these try it only once or twice. Conversely, only 18% of people age 30-39 have tried chat, however half of those who try chat rooms continue to use them. In total, 6% of people aged 30-39 chat on-line every week, compared to 4% of people aged 18-29. This may be because on-line chat rooms become a social community for the over 30s, while the younger group send one another an SMS message to arrange to meet in person! | |
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How This Research Was Conducted McNair Ingenuity Research survey over 2,000 adults and 1,200 children every year for the Australian's Today Consumer Insights research program, using state-of-the-art techniques to ensure that the survey sample is representative of the whole population. The results above come from the Autumn 2002 wave of the research. McNair Ingenuity Research are audited and accredited by Interviewer Quality Control Australia (IQCA) the industry watchdog for survey quality.
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