Despite the economic slowdown, mobile texting is expected to grow across the board, including its use in political campaigns.

CTIA: The Wireless Association claims that an estimated 600 billion SMS text messages were exchanged last year. One of the largest events last year was the Sept. 3 drop of 2.9 million messages in one go to announce then-Senator Barack Obama's choice of fellow Senator Joe Biden as his running mate.

SMS' popularity even caused the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies Dec. 29 to caution Washington visitors to text instead of calling or sending images from their mobile phones. They were merely echoing the CTIA's urgings. The following day, the Presidential Inauguration Committee set up a Twitter account for relaying day-of official logistical scheduling information through text messages.

Jay Emmet is general manager of OpenMarket Inc., a Seattle-based SMS mobile campaign aggregator. In this Q&A, Mr. Emmet discusses how SMS has affected politics and particularly its role in helping Mr. Obama attain the American presidency.

What lessons should brands and marketers take away from Mr. Obama's use of SMS?
SMS has always given marketers and brands the ability to influence people.

What Obama has taught us is that SMS can be done on such a scale as to raise brand awareness and strengthen customer relationships and loyalty to millions of people at one time.

Obama's use of SMS has shown that millions of people are willing to use mobile marketing as a vehicle for receiving information.

Now that we know there are so many people out there it is our responsibility to engage them and provide content that they want via SMS.

CTIA reports that there are over 270 million wireless subscribers in the U.S. -- that's roughly 84 percent of this country's population.

People habitually carry and interact with their cell phones, whether to stay connected to their family, friends, or to current events, and the level of engagement with their connections provides an ample opportunity for brands and marketers to reach millions of consumers through SMS aggregation.

The Obama campaign proves that mobile messaging has gone mainstream in the U.S., with mobile users of all ages and experience receiving updates on everything from simple news and weather information alerts to social networking. Political campaigns are now getting into the mix.

SMS aggregates like OpenMarket will enable political parties, government agencies and politicians to build mobile marketing campaigns to reach more than 98 percent of all U.S. mobile subscribers on any given day.

Just imagine the level of voter turnout if we were able to use SMS to cast our vote. That may not be that dubious over the next decade.

What issues will there be in the DC area during the inauguration ceremony?
We hope that there are no issues in the DC area during the inauguration.

What is OpenMarket's stance about whether or not Mr. Obama should get to keep his BlackBerry?
We think every American has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of mobile freedom.

Who are OpenMarket's SMS clients? What challenges does OpenMarket address for them?
Our client base consists of a diverse range of Fortune 500 companies, from high-profile national consumer brands and retailers, to very small companies in niche markets relating to social networking, gaming and advertising.

We also service clients in the financial services, government and healthcare markets.

Our mobile transaction hub, which facilitates mobile messaging and content sales via the off-portal mobile channel, is the largest â?¦ of its kind in the U.S. today.

Our network serves the largest connectivity footprint in the nation, which enables us to provide the most direct network operator connections with the widest U.S. mobile subscriber reach.