Text messaging remains vital to businesses, both from a customerand an employee standpoint, a new survey shows.

According to a survey of nearly 550 mobile phone owners, 36%subscribe to receive mobile messages from businesses, and 90% ofthem opt to receive the messages from one to five businesses.

The study by Chicago-based wireless messaging specialist Infinite Convergence Solutionssurveyed 547 consumers on their mobile messaging habits andbehaviors.

(Click on image at right to see enlarged version.)

Findings were evaluated based on demographic qualifiers,including gender, age and smartphone ownership, the company said,and response percentages were further evaluated on a quantitativescale to assess actionable metrics for enterprises.

The study also found that 45% of mobile phone owners use mobilemessaging for business correspondence and that 61% of them sayofficial from an employer is the most valuable information theyreceive, Infinite Convergence said.

The study also found that 87% of mobile phone owners open a message within 15 minutes of seeing a notification, thecompany said.

“The number of mobile and smartphone owners are steadilyincreasing, meaning more consumers are mobile messaging,” saidAnurag Lal, CEO of Infinite Convergence. “SMS and MMS messaging isthe most ubiquitous form of communication and a platform businessesmust leverage to reach consumers.”