The use of the SMS may be slowing down, but it will not disappear in South Africa.
Jacques Swanepoel, MD of Cellfind, a consultancy firm, said that the SMS remained a valuable business tool. "Text-based mobile marketing is still the most effective and affordable way that allows corporates to stay in touch with customers," he said.
According to technology research firm International Data, only 18% of South Africans had smartphones by 2013, despite imports increasing by 21.5% from the previous year. "The average mobile phone user checks their phone about 150 times a day," said Charles Stretch, MD of the bulk SMS service provider SMSPortal.
Vodacom had a 9.9% decline in revenue from personal SMSs in the 12 months until the end of June. But only 8 million users on the Vodacom network are registered on "smart" devices out of a total of 32.5 million.
Source: The Times, via I-Net Bridge
