The UK is a bunch of texting addicts

UK MOBILE USERS now send around 11 million text messages an hour, according to the latest figures from the Mobile Data Association.

According to the report, last year the UK collectively sent an average of 265 million text messages and 1.6 million picture messages every day, totalling 96.8 billion and 600 million respectively across the whole year.

While SMS far outstripped the use of MMS, it seems that we still like sending the odd picture message, particularly during notable events such as Christmas Day or snaps of the heavy snowfall.

"These statistics show that even with new social media forms of messaging such as Twitter and Facebook, people are using SMS as a social messaging tool because of its simplicity and ubiquity," said Steve Reynolds, chairman of the MDA

"There remains a significant and still developing role for text messaging. In a seemingly relentless tide of status updates, tweets and pokes, the UK population's love affair with mobile messaging for instant, on-the-go communication continues to deepen."

According to Reynolds, while the world plus dog has pretty much got the hang of text messaging, the same can't yet be said for other social messaging platforms, particularly in the context of mobile.

"New generation touchscreen handsets and the bundling of SMS messages into many tariffs has made texting easier, and seen its role develop," explained Rob Bamforth, a principal analyst at Quocirca.

"Now it is not only a convenient medium for a quick chat with friends, but also a way of participating in television voting and raising funds for needy charities. When a powerful call to action is given, the population of the UK often turn first towards their mobile phones."

The latest figures show that growth of both text and multimedia messaging continues although it has been slightly lower recently than in previous years. With around 56.9 billion and 78.9 billion texts sent in 2007 and 2008 respectively, year on year growth has dropped from 39 to 23 per cent. Similarly the year on year growth of picture messaging has dropped from 23 to nine per cent. µ