There are more than a billion mobile subscribers in China

"Total telephone subscribers saw a net increase of 9.91 mln in February to reach 1.291 bln. Mobile subscribers grew by 10.33 mln to 1.007 bln, and fixed-line subscribers dropped by 419,000 to 284.29 mln. Broken down by traditional fixed-line and PHS, the PHS subscriber base declined by 595,000 subcribers to 16.34 mln, while traditional (i.e. non-PHS) fixed-line subscribers increased by 176,000 to 267.95 mln. 7.32 mln new 3G subscribers were added in February to reach a total of 143.92 mln.
A total of 71.03 bln SMS messages were sent during the month of February, bringing the total for the first 2 months of 2012 to 156.59 bln, a 7.6% increase over the figure during the same period of 2011."
Source:  Data from the Chinese Ministry of Industry & Information Technology, reported by Marbridge Daily, 30th March 2012

86bn text messages were sent in China in January 2012

"China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has released its January 2012 telecom industry statistics. The figures for the month were as follows:
Telecom operating revenues were RMB 92.52 bln (USD 14.66 bln), up 15% YoY. Core services accounted for RMB 81.63 bln (USD 12.94 bln) of the total, up 12.2% YoY.
Total telephone subscribers saw a net increase of 9.94 mln in January to reach 1.281 bln. Mobile subscribers grew by 10.35 mln to 996.6 mln, and fixed-line subscribers dropped by 0.41 mln to 284.71 mln. Broken down by traditional fixed-line and PHS, the PHS subscriber base declined by 934,000 subs to 16.94 mln, while traditional (i.e. non-PHS) fixed-line subscribers increased by 525,000 to 267.77 mln. 8.18 mln new 3G subscribers were added in January to reach a total of 136.6 mln.
A total of 85.57 bln SMS messages were sent during the month of January, a 23.8% increase YoY."

Source:  Marbridge Daily, 13th March 2012

Mobile operators lost an estimated $14bn in 2011 due to consumers using messaging through other channels

"Mobile operators worldwide lost USD13.9bn in lucrative messaging revenues last year, as consumers increasingly contact their friends through social networks on their phones, according to new research by Ovum. The loss widened 59.7% year on year from the USD8.7bn drop that beset operators in 2010, as mobile social networking continues to grow in popularity. The stats highlight the pressure facing mobile operators as consumers increasingly opt for data-hungry smartphones with greater functionality, reducing the need for traditional services such as messaging. As a result, Ovum forecasts that revenue growth for mobile services will slow to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just 1.9% between 2011 and 2016, when it will hit USD1,047bn globally.
Ovum’s research is likely to exacerbate concerns that mobile data revenues will not be enough to offset the decline in traditional revenue streams. The research firm predicts that mobile data revenues will grow at a CAGR of 7.2% between 2011 and 2016 to hit USD419bn, though the total still comprises less than half of overall mobile revenues from mobile services that Ovum forecasts for 2016."

Source:  StrategyEye, 22nd February 2012

Note:  'Estimate' is putting it politely...  Very notional numbers, but interesting all the same.

Text messaging is declining Y-o-Y in Finland and Hong Kong

"One of the pioneering text-messaging markets of late Nineties showed substantial declines in text-messaging during the key Christmas period. Customers of Finland’s dominant mobile carrier, Sonera, sent 8.5 Million text messages during the Christmas Eve of 2011. This is a surprisingly steep tumble from the 10.9 Million text messages sent during the Christmas Eve of 2010. The more youth-oriented operator called DNA witnessed a decline to 5.6 Million text messages from 5.9 Million text messages. Christmas Eve text messages traditionally form the biggest or second biggest SMS day of the year in many markets (eclipsed by New Year in some regions). A major winter storm hitting Scandinavia triggered YoY SMS growth on Christmas Day, demonstrating how national disasters still drive consumers towards old school text-messaging.
Signs of consumers moving on from text-messaging to social media, email and IP-based messaging systems started cropping up in 2011 in advanced SMS markets like Netherlands and Philippines. What we seem to be witnessing is a situation where those countries where SMS took off first during Nineties are now the first ones to see a steep decline in SMS usage.
In Hong Kong. the Christmas Day text message decline was nearly 14%. It does seem as though the SMS erosion rates in countries that originally pioneered the service are higher than most observers anticipated in early 2011. Possibly because new services such as mobile Facebook and Twitter are now widely adopted in the same markets where SMS took off after 1995."

Source:  Forbes, 29th December 2011

80% of American mobile users multitask in front of the TV

"While 80% of mobile users multitask in front of TV, 70% say they multitask once a week, and 49% on a daily basis. More than 60% percent check their phones at least “once or twice” during a show with 15% active on their devices the entire time.
– 38% say their mobile activity enhances the broadcast, while another 38% say it’s distracting.
– The top 5 categories that attract multitaskers are reality shows, news, comedy, sports and food.
– 94% of mobile multitaskers communicate while watching TV, while 60% are looking up content. Of the communicators, the most popular activities in order are: texting, talking, email, social networking and IM.
– 44% of the content that multitaskers consume is unrelated to what’s on TV compared to 38% that’s related. 36% look up information about a commercial they just saw. Most multitasking activity, overall, happens during commercial breaks."
Source:  Research from Razorfish & Yahoo, reported by LostRemote, 10th November 2011
The original article is here.  There's no mention of the methodology, but since all shows referred to are Aerican, I'm assuming the study took place in the US.

European Mobile Benchmarks August 2011

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Source:  Data from comScore for the 3 months to August 2011, reported in a press release, 26th October 2011

Data on American text message usage

"Young adults are the most avid texters by a wide margin. Cell owners between the ages of 18 and 24 exchange an average of 109.5 messages on a normal day—that works out to more than 3,200 texts per month—and the typical or median cell owner in this age group sends or receives 50 messages per day (or 1500 messages per month).
Overall, the survey found that both text messaging and phone calling on cell phones have leveled off for the adult population as a whole. Text messaging users send or receive an average of 41.5 messages on a typical day, with the median user sending or receiving 10 texts daily – both figures are largely unchanged from what we reported in 2010. Similarly, cell owners make or receive an average of 12 calls on their cells per day, which is unchanged from 2010"
Source:  Data from Pew Internet and American Life Project 'Americans and Text Messaging', 19th September 2011
Full report from Pew here

Key Ofcom stats for the UK

"Internet
Number of fixed residential broadband connections in the UK - 18.0 million (end 2010).
Proportion of adults with broadband in the UK (fixed + mobile) - 74% (Q1 2011)
Proportion of adults with mobile broadband in the UK - 17% (Q1 2011)
Proportion of adults with a social networking profile - 48% (Q1 2011)
Proportion of people who use their mobile to access the internet -  32% (Q1 2011)
Number of mobile broadband (Dongles/PC datacard) subscriptions - 4.8 million (end 2010)
Landline/mobile phones
Number of residential fixed landlines in the UK - 23.7 million (end 2010)
Number of fixed landlines in the UK, including ISDN channels - 33.4 million (end 2010)
Proportion of adults who personally own/use a mobile phone in the UK - 91% (Q1 2011)
Proportion of adults who live in a home that has a mobile phone but no landline phone in the UK - 15% (Q1 2011)
How many PAYG mobile subscriptions in the UK ? - 51% (Q1 2011)
Number of text messages sent per mobile subscription per month - 133 (in 2010)
Number of 3G mobile subscriptions in the UK - 33.1 million (end 2010)
Digital television
Proportion of UK homes with digital TV 93% (Q1 2011)
Number of TVs in the UK 60m (end 2010)
Number of HD TVs in the UK - 24m (Q1 2010)
Number of minutes of TV people aged 4+ watch each day - 242 (average in 2010)
Number of UK homes with Freeview on any set - 74% (Q1 2011)
Proportion of UK homes with Freeview on their main set - 38% (Q1 2011)
Digital radio
Proportion of households with access to a DAB Digital Radio - 37% (Q1 2011)
Proportion of listener hours through a digital platform (DAB, online, DTV) - 26.5% (Q1 2011)
Number of digital radio stations - 216 (end 2009)
Number of local radio stations (excluding community stations) - 344 (July2011)
Number of national radio stations - 21 (July 2011)"
Source:  Ofcom's latest facts and figures on the UK, retrieved 4th August 2011

Mobile usage in the big 5 markets in Europe

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Source:  Data from comScore MobiLens, reported in a press release, 29th July 2011
Note - lots more data in the full press release

How affluent Europeans use their mobile phones

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Source:  Press release from Synovate for the 2011 EMS Survey, 14th March 2011

Note on methodology & sample - "EMS 2011 represents the highest-earning 13% of the population in 20 markets across Western and Central Europe. Refinements to the design of this, the 16th release of EMS, include consumption of media brands via mobile applications and mobile websites. This is the first year that an EMEA-wide set of data, combining results from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has enabled at-a-glance comparisons between markets as diverse as the Czech Republic and Cameroon, mirroring the multi-region planning priorities of many advertisers. From next year, we’ll be including Turkey too."

£15.1m was raised for Comic Relief 2011 through text messaging

"Mobile phone users could donate to Comic Relief by pledging £1, £5 or £10 by texting "Yes" to number 70010, organised by Mobile Interactive Group (MIG). Mobile operators waived their usual fees.
Mobile donations accounted for £15.1m of the £74.4m raised so far.
Radha Chakraborty, operations director for Comic Relief, said: "SMS donations provide a valuable channel for us and appeal to a wide audience."
Earlier that week, those following the trek of a clutch of celebrities across the Kaisut Desert in northern Kenya could donate £1 by texting "DESERT" to 70011, while a third number was set up for viewers to donate £5 for the airing of a documentary about the trek on 18 March."
Source:  Brand Republic, 3rd May 2011

72% of Britons access social networks while in bed

"Web-obsessed Britons spend an average of 16 minutes surfing their social networks while laying in bed, a study shows.
A survey reveals that 72 per cent of people update their social networking profiles from bed
The survey, conducted by Travelodge, found that 72 per cent of adults update their social networking profiles from under the duvet, spending an average of 16 minutes per night checking Facebook, Twitter and other social sites.
The peak time for bed-based social networking was found to be 9.45am, with 18 per cent of those questioned admitting to accessing Twitter at that time."
Source:  The Telegraph, 14th December 2010

China has 842m mobile phone subscribers and 300m fixed line phone subscribers

"Total telephone subscribers saw a net increase of 7.56 mln in October, with mobile subscribers growing by 8.74 mln to 842.04 mln, and fixed-line subscribers dropping by 1.18 mln to 300.09 mln. Broken down by traditional fixed-line and PHS, the PHS subscriber base declined by 1.17 mln subs to 31.65 mln, while traditional (i.e. non-PHS) fixed-line subscribers decreased by 20,000 to 268.44 mln.
A total of 67.38 bln SMS messages were sent during the month of October, bringing the total for the first 10 months of 2010 to 685.27 bln, a 6.8% increase over the figure during the same period of 2009."
Source:  China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) figures for ~October 2010, reported by Marbridge Daily, 24th November 2010

The most popular functions on US kids' mobile phones

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Source: Slide 17 of Four or More: The New Demographic, Pew Internet and American Life Project, 30th June 2010
The full presentation is well worth reading.

US teens text ten times an hour

"Nielsen analyzes more than 40,000 mobile bills every month to determine what consumers actually are spending their money on. The results are staggering: American teenagers are using 3,146 messages a month, which translates into more than 10 messages every hour of the month that they are not sleeping or in school. Even the under 12 segment are sending 1,146 messages per month, which is almost four text messages per waking hour that they are not at school.
While the 13-17 year old age bracket is already highly saturated, the last holiday season was good to the under 12 segment when it came to text messaging. A full 8 percent increase in SMS usage was measured combined with a near doubling in text message volume for that segment in the following quarter (Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa are late in December, so usage increases will be recorded in Q1)."
Source: Research by Nielsen, reported on their blog, 27th January 2010

The Red Cross raised over $1 million for Haiti disaster relief through text messages in less than 24 hours

[Update - 15th January - It's now over $5m via SMS]
[Update - 15th January - now over $10m]
"We’ve just confirmed that the Red Cross has already raised more than $800,000 [later updated to more than $1m) for Haiti through their $10 text message donation initiative (text “Haiti” to 90999), which is backed by the United States State Department."
Source: Mashable, 13th January 2010, with the million landmark confirmed in this tweet by Katie J Stanton, also on on 13th January 2010

1.4 billion texts are sent daily in the US in 2009, twice as many as in 2008

"Some 740 billion text messages were sent in the first half of 2009 in the U.S. This according to the CTIA’s semiannual wireless industry survey, which helpfully breaks down that astonishing figure to an even more astonishing 4.1 billion texts per day. That’s about double the number sent during the same period last year. And keep in mind, we’re only talking about the United States here, not the rest of the world."
Source: CITA Wireless Industry Survey, reported by Digital Daily, 8th October 2009

99 billion text mesages were sent per month in the UK in 2008

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Source: Page 255 of Ofcom Communications Market report, August 2009
More information here

Filipinos sent 1bn text messages daily in 2008

"Filipinos doubled the number of text messages they sent last year to an average of 1 billion daily, industry data showed on Tuesday.
The Philippines is one of the prolific text messaging centers of the world with even the central bank governor sending monetary policy statements via mobile phone and an increasing number of consumers using their handsets for banking and bill payments."
Source: Reuters, 4th March 2008, citing the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT)