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Posted: 12/17/10 by Mobile Future Team

During the past few months, 85 percent of 13- to 34-year-olds sent or received text messages.  For seniors, it's about half that.

But according to a new article in BusinessWeek, that gap looks to be closing.  First, seniors are catching on to the benefits of instant communications.  Second, as the article notes, there are a growing number of mobile phones with large buttons and screens that are specifically designed for seniors.

The magazine cites one estimate predicting that by 2013, 80 percent of seniors will be texting, about double today's rate.  As for texting's occasionally idiosyncratic spellings, as a 54-year-old Washington State mother told the magazine, "I was reluctant because of my bad spelling, but that was before I realized young people don't take time to spell correctly, either."