According to a study by Telephia and Harris Interactive, young adults in the U.S. are set to upgrade their mobile phones and drive mobile messaging use,

The marketing of new next-generation mobile handsets this holiday season is likely to drive increased adoption and usage of mobile messaging services, such as SMS, according to a new study by Telephia and Harris Interactive.

Young adult subscribers, who have doubled their text messaging usage in the past year, are positioned to lead the way in handset upgrades and will continue to drive usage in this red-hot area.

Several key indicators signify that messaging is gaining notable traction among U.S. subscribers. Compared to this time last year, interest in SMS and other 2-way messaging services has remained strong at approximately half of the user population.

At the same time, usage has increased substantially from 12 percent to 20 percent in the last year. That trend is accentuated among young adult users (ages 18 to 24), whose usage doubled from 22 percent to 45 percent over that period.

In a positive sign that messaging is becoming an integral part of the mobile lifestyle, more than one in four (28 percent) subscribers that utilize messaging services are frequent users (send/receive at least one message daily), and a full 38 percent of young adults report frequent use.

Based on reported intent to upgrade their handset this holiday season and into next year, young adults can also support continued adoption of text messaging applications.

A sizeable share of young adults (41 percent) - and 32 percent of all subscribers - plans to upgrade their handset in the coming year. The study also expects an increased focus by operators and handset manufacturers to promote messaging services among young users and the wide availability of handsets with enhanced messaging capabilities will help continue the positive trend.