New Zealand's Telecom released information regarding the messaging service smartphone owners often use to keep in touch. Telecom mobile customers used Apple's iMessage service the most with 150,000 subscribers using it regularly. About 140,000 customers preferred to use Facebook Messenger while 78,000 opted for the free call and text service of Viber.

New Zealand's Telecom also found that more users like to communicate with Microsoft Live Messenger than Skype or Google Talk. Relatively new app, WhatsApp messenger is the least used with only 23,000 customers.

Seeing Apple's iMessage as the most used messaging service is not a surprise following the recent announcement of Apple about users to have sent a total of 800 billion messages. WhatsApp also declared that over 27 billion messages go through its system daily.

Mobile users have different needs than desktop users. Although Skype is popular among desktop users, it is not the obvious choice for mobile users since iMessage is more convenient and treated like SMS.

More iOS devices mean more iMessaging?

At the start of 2013, Apple revealed it sold 500 million devices across the globe. Apple has sold more than 75 million iOS devices for the first time in a single quarter. iCloud accounts have also increased to 250 million with users sending 2 billion iMessages a day.

Apple iMessage and other free messaging services threaten local telecom's SMS profits. iMessage lets users send free messages over WiFi or 3G network in thread-like form using an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad mini and iPad equipped with iOS5 and iOS6. Free messaging apps like the iMessage are popular because it saves users money.

The release of iOS7 sometime in the fall may boost the sales of iOS devices in the future. Apple has yet to confirm new hardware models although rumors of an iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 and the low-cost iPhone are all over the Web.