RSSStudy: IM Equaling Popularity of E-mail
By Ed Oswald | Published November 10, 2005, 11:16 AM
Instant messaging continues to grow as a medium for online communication, according to details of a study released by America Online on Thursday. Instant messaging is up 19 percent, and 38 percent of all users say they now send more IMs than e-mails.
The survey also found that one-third of users connect to instant messaging networks through their mobile phones. This is nearly twice the number recorded last year, when only 19 percent said they used such services, and over three times as high as in 2003, when the number stood at 10 percent.
IM usage is increasing in popularity at work as well, with 58 percent of professionals using it to communicate with their co-workers. Half send messages to get answers and make business decisions, with a little over a fourth having used IM to communicate with clients.
Some turn to instant messages to avoid difficult conversations; one in eight have used it in place of a face-to-face meeting at work.
"Instant messaging is a part of everyday life, with more and more people using their IM service as a starting point for all communications, from sending mobile messages to friends on cell phones to placing VoIP-based phone calls," said Chamath Palihapitiya, AIM and ICQ's vice president and general manager.
This trend is evidenced by increasing requests for more feature-laden messaging clients. One in four would like live streaming television or music on-demand included, while one in five would like to see video on-demand or voice over IP (VoIP) services.
Moveover, one in eight IM users would replace their landline phone with an instant messaging service that features VoIP capabilities.
According to the survey, Miami, Florida is the top market for instant messaging. Also, AOL found that New York City IM users are most likely to maintain multiple screen names, while users in Tampa most often use IM at work.
In Seattle, users are most likely to say things in work-related IMs that they wouldn't in an e-mail message.
The survey polled 4,032 respondents age 13 and older from September 16-26. Thursday's survey was the third annual installment of the questionnaire, which looks at trends in instant messaging usage.
Uhh... Well duhhh... Doesn't take a freakin' research-nerd to figure this out. Or, it doesn't take a freakin study to find out this info.
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What's email? ;)
I use Gaim for Yahoo, MSN and AIM... and I agree that it's better then email :)
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Instant messengers need to change and go with plugins instead of everything included on install just pick the features you want and get more later if you find you want it.
I don't mind the extra bloat from messengers like msn messenger but i know theres a few people who complain about it.
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I.M.'s are for sure the way to go these days. Having things like Trillian, Gaim, and Miranda that combile all the protocols into one client I think has helped as well.
The VoIP features are important I think, but when are folks gonna get more interested in the video-chat side of things? There is eyeballchat and camfrog that both work pretty well and now a few video plugin's for skype you can get too....just wish there were more options.
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i refuse to use those 'all in one' solutions until they add the tabs that aim has and use them for each handle/protocol
i'd like to avoid scrolling as much as i can, especially since i have hundreds of contacts among 5 handles/protocols (more than one on aim)
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GAIM has had tabs for YEARS, what are you talking about?
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<.< no idea, I guess i need to research more
yes more plugins, plugins are good
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:-)
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