Mobile messaging revenue to reach $212B by 2013: Study

By Mickey Alam Khan

March 24, 2008

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A new study claims that innovation and customization will cause mobile revenues to grow to $212 billion by 2013.

Factors leading to that projection from ABI Research include SMS text messages' rapid adoption in the Americas, mobile email's growth in developed regions, mobile subscriber growth in Asia-Pacific and the increasing popularity of social networking.

"You will not find many customers worldwide who don't find messaging cost-effective and valuable for communications and delivery of information," said ABI principal analyst Dan Shey in a statement.

"The range of capabilities, services and pricing options can be fit to the economic and social differences of each region, and the result quite simply is steady growth over the next five years," he said.

The points were discussed in ABI's�Mobile Messaging Services Report.

The study covers the messaging market across five common platforms -- SMS, MMS, instant messaging, email/unified messaging and voicemail.

Indeed, the growth of messaging services is based on varying region-specific drivers.

However, the benefits driving the growth of messaging extend beyond its obvious economic, social and convenience advantages relative to voice-calling, the New York-based market researcher said.

New input and access capabilities will drive the next stage of messaging growth. So will integration across mobile and fixed-line platforms.

"Innovation in messaging input, including touch screens, voice-to-text and advanced keyboard designs makes initiating a mobile message very easy," Mr. Shey said.

"By combining input options with greater ease of communicating across mobile and fixed platforms regardless of messaging service, messaging providers serve customers' needs very well in both the consumer and business domains," he said.�

He also anticipates another stage of growth for mobile messaging.

"Some very creative companies are finding unique ways to incorporate advertising in mobile messaging," Mr. Shey said. "If done right, advertising will completely change the mobile messaging market."