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SMS to Remain Key Revenue Driver

Despite growth in enhanced messaging services over the next five years, SMS will remain a key revenue driver for the messaging market globally.

This is one of the findings of Mobile Messaging - 2005, a new strategic report from Informa Telecoms & Media, which brings together the latest research and current market information from around the world. The report also analyses the current position and future prospects for a range of enhanced messaging options such as multimedia messaging (MMS), mobile email and instant messaging (IM).

Across all these sectors, person to person (P2P) messaging will continue to represent the main sector of the business, but application to person (A2P) and interactive messaging will become increasingly important as new services such as mobile marketing and delivery of rich content come on stream.

'We believe the messaging market has great potential' says Dan Winterbottom - one of the report's authors - 'with total revenues approaching $120 billion globally by 2010, this is one of the key growth sectors in mobile services'. Part of this growth will come from new markets, such as the developing areas of Asia Pacific, and part from an increasingly complex marketplace where messaging is driven by business users as well as by consumers. One example of this is mobile email, which is attracting the attention of a number of major players including Microsoft.

The application to person market has seen a considerable amount of evolution recently - increasing penetration of higher performance handsets, as well as moves by brand owners to go direct to the consumer have combined to create a more attractive environment for content providers and mobile consumers alike. Alongside existing content like ringtones and games, new forms such as full-track downloads, end user-generated content like mobile blogging and fan-based communities are helping to fuel new growth in the sector.

Looking further ahead towards the medium term future, the outlook for enhanced messaging including mobile email, MMS and IM is promising. The common theme that runs through the success stories in the sector is consumer benefit - whether that means sharing pictures on a network, downloading music on demand or giving consumers the power to shape mobile content in a way that suits them.

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