SAN DIEGO, Nov. 1, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- In a Friday poll of mobile phone users in approximately 50 countries outside the United States, 74.6 percent of 151,022 respondents said they preferred Senator John Kerry as the next President of the United States. 25.4 percent favored President Bush and no one polled was given the option to weigh-in on the 2004 election as an undecided respondent. This latest poll was conducted by SMS.ac, Inc., host to the largest community of mobile phone users in the world (www.sms.ac).
Friday's survey, which comes on the heels of a related poll within the U.S. that gave President Bush a nearly 11 point lead over his Democratic rival, is believed to be the largest survey ever taken, using mobile devices. The responses were sent via mobile handsets and through the company's consumer site (www.sms.ac) - both using SMS.ac's mobile consumer authentication system, called MMSbox(tm).
The latest SMS.ac poll question:
If you could vote in the upcoming election, who would you choose as the next President of the United States?
-- President George Bush -- Senator John Kerry
Various news outlets have recently examined the shortcomings of polling methodology related to the 2004 Presidential race, particularly because so many people in the U.S. and around the world exclusively utilize their mobile phones for communication, as opposed to using traditional, fixed-line phones. As a result they are not accessible to voting pollsters who use published directories to contact their sample audience via land lines.
"Although there are issues relating to security to consider, SMS.ac's latest mobile surveys clearly indicate that wireless handsets may serve as accepted voting mechanisms in the future," said SMS.ac's chairman and chief executive, Michael Pousti.
"SMS.ac's audience is comprised solely of mobile phone users and what makes the SMS.ac poll so compelling, is that each response, even those garnered from the Web, are verifiable as being unique and non-duplicated."
Pousti referenced SMS.ac's proprietary technology platform, called MMSbox(tm), which enables the interoperable exchange of mobile multimedia communications (MMS) and mobile micro-transaction billing across any network. "The technology isolates each mobile device user as a unique entity," continued Pousti. "So, whether votes are cast from handsets or from our consumer site, all members are authenticated through their mobile phones. No person is able to cast multiple votes."
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About SMS.ac
SMS.ac, Inc. is a mobile data communications company whose proprietary MMSbox(tm) platform enables the interoperable exchange of mobile multimedia (MMS and SMS) and micro-transaction billing across all mobile standards, protocols and the Internet. A demonstration of the MMSbox platform is available at www.sms.ac.
With tens of millions of self-registered mobile consumers in 170 countries, and connectivity to more than 400 mobile operators worldwide, SMS.ac is host to the largest community of mobile phone users in the world. Through its global initiatives, SMS.ac is igniting the widespread adoption and use of wireless data. To view the SMS.ac corporate web site, visit www.sms.ac/corporate.