Text messages popular for 'Idol'

May 30 - 01:15 PM ET | SMS

In Fox's "American Idol", viewers can vote for their favorite contestent via either a phone call or text message (only from AT&T Wireless phones). AT&T Wireless announced that during the latest season, 13.5 million SMS votes were cast. The total for last year was 7.5 million.

Where it gets interesting is the additional statistics provided:

• More than 40 percent of all SMS voters had never sent a text message as an AT&T Wireless customer before
• The number of text message votes received increased by nearly 700 percent from the first voting episode to the last voting episode

MobileTracker believes that problems with the landline side of the voting system contributed to both of these factors. There were no busy signals with the SMS system, which gave it a huge advantage over the 1-800 number system.

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• SMS More Popular Than Voice

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