Voice search and speech services provider Vlingo published results of a consumer survey of 4,816 people (US residents 13 and older). Much of it is about driving while texting and the dangers of doing so. In that context, the self-serving finding is nearly 70% of survey respondents "would use voice recognition technology while driving instead of typing if they could speak text or email messages and have incoming messages read to them."

Here are some of the other top-level findings:

60% of mobile phone users now use SMS, compared to 54% in a survey conducted last year.

Vlingo drills down a bit on the behavior: 

• In 2008, teens and twenty-somethings were by far the largest users of texting, coming in at 85%. In 2009, this continued to be true with teens at 94% and 20-somethings at 87%, but usage also increased for older age groups. Among those in their 40s, usage jumped from 56% to 64%, and for those in their 50s it jumped from 38% to 46%.
• Texting is also gaining on sending/receiving calls as the primary use of mobile phones, with 35% of all respondents using their phones for texting more than for phone calls. Almost half of respondents do both in equal numbers.
• The volume of text messages has gone up as well across all age groups, although the 13 to 19 age group remains the most active, sending more than 500 texts per month on average.

On the half empty side of the findings:

• 41% do not text
• 70% do not browse the Web (our recent surveys have found 27% to 29% using the mobile Web). 
• 73% do not use email on their mobile phones (email is the most popular mobile Web use case.)
• Cost is a barrier: 44% for cite cost as a barrier to adopting text messaging, 59% for Web Browsing, and 53% for mobile email. (We have data that supports this from several surveys.)

Among those who do not text:

• 27% cite the difficulty of typing on a tiny keyboard as a barrier
• 37% say it takes too much time to type
• 74% report that they would use voice enablement as a way to make text messaging easier

We agree with Vlingo and have found similar interest in voice as an interface or input mechanism. While it's rapidly improving, it still has some distance to go as a total substitute for manual keypad entry. 

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September 2008 Nielsen SMS numbers are fairly consistent with the Vlingo data.