American Idol brings texting to the US masses
Wireless text messaging (also called texting as described in the great book Smart Mobs I've just started reading) was put on the map by the success of Fox's American Idol show according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):
John Zeglis, chief executive of AT&T Wireless Services Inc., said 2.5 million votes were cast by customers using the company's text-messaging service during the "American Idol" finale Wednesday night.
In all, about 24 million votes were cast, mostly by telephone, in the talent contest that ended with Mr. Studdard's narrow victory over runner-up Clay Aiken.