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31.01.2007
IM, e-mail and multimedia to drive messaging growth
Instant messaging (IM), e-mail and multimedia services are
set to drive a jump in growth for mobile messaging, suggests
a new report published today by telecoms consultants
Analysys. Total mobile messaging revenue is expected to peak
in 2010 at ˆ26.1 billion, up by 42 per cent on the 2005
total of ˆ18.4 billion, according to the research.
While the volume of short message services (SMS) will
continue growing steadily, revenue is likely to peak in 2008
as competition and the turn to flat-rate bundled packages
drive down prices. The report's author, Windsor Holden,
said: "The danger with the flat-rate bundling of messaging
services is that it both reduces the opportunity for
operators to add value and exposes them to the risk of
price-based competition."
The report also warned that messaging spam and the high
number of multimedia messages that fail during sending could
be deterrents to usage growth. For mobile IM to reach its
full potential, Holden said operators must work together and
use open protocols.
"In the fixed environment, the prevalence of closed
protocols means that the messaging base is primarily
composed of a number of isolated communities," he said. "If
this were to be emulated in the mobile space, operators
would be denying themselves any opportunity of accruing
inter-network revenue and would be preventing IM from
developing into a truly mass-market application."
Source: ITPpro.co.uk
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