European picture messaging has increased by 16% this year

Picture messaging has grown by 16% in Europe over the last 12 months... and by 60% in the USA, where the MMS trend started later. The latest M:Metrics Benchmark Study (published by comScore) also showed that US picture messaging usage is higher than average in July and August, while UK usage is higher in December. 78% of Europeans and 66% of Americans now own a camera phone, with nearly a quarter of all US mobile users and about a third of Europeans having sent or received photos in April this year. [Press release]