A recent survey in the States found that teenagers prefer IM to email to stay in touch. I wonder what the results would have been in the UK? Although I'm not a teenager (no email, IM or mobiles when I was!) I'm almost certain that the most popular medium amongst UK teenagers is SMS.
Everywhere I look I see kids texting. There's a school just around the corner from where I live and I have to be extra careful when I'm driving as the kids are paying more attention to their phones than the roads.
I think though it's a shame that mobile networks aren't more progressive in their thinking and promote IM services harder. I think they are concerned that any IM service will lead to reduced SMS revenues, rather than looking at IM as a catalyst to get users sending files, pictures and initiating video calls.
