MOBILE MESSAGING DATA POINTS: New Numbers; Not Just Mobile Advertising & Growth Everywhere
EDITOR’S NOTE: While many may have gone gaga over the iPad, this must-read article (via The New York Times) reminds us the real (and global) excitement is still about no-frills mobile phones and text messaging. In fact, I’m off to London tomorrow for a mobile advertising solution launch designed and commercialized to harness text and picture messaging in a two-way conversation between brands and people (aptly called Dialogue). Meantime, several sessions during the MMA Mobile Market Forum this week in Singapore also focus on the importance of messaging to deliver compelling mobile marketing. Connect the dots, mobile is becoming the universal technology (to borrow from the NYT piece). Eliza gives us a roundup of stats that drive this home. Good catch girl!
NOT JUST ADVERTISING: What do people want from mobile messaging services? According to research conducted by Dialogue Communications, people are warming up to the idea of receiving SMS-based appointment reminders. The website is thin on methodology (how many were asked what), but 67 percent of respondents said they would be happy to receive a wide range of reminders and alerts via their mobile phone. Source
The upshot: Given that the mobile phone is the one truly ubiquitous device, it makes sense that people would want to use it for more than just receiving ads and offers. There’s a real opportunity here for organizations to use technology to make our lives a little easier by offering SMS services that are not only customized and convenient, but also more cost-effective and environmentally-friendly. Just be sure to ask us our permission (opt-in) first!
MESSAGING MILESTONES: Yep, mobile messaging is HUGE. But just how big is it really? A new report from Portio Research provides us some important insights. It reckons worldwide messaging revenues are set to exceed $233 billion by 2014.
Some other stats:
• Over 5 trillion SMS messages were sent in 2009 with that figure on target to exceed the 10 trillion mark (!) by 2013.
• In 2009, MMS revenues exceeded $27 billion
• Enterprise emails account for 70-85 percent of revenues
• Mobile IM is set to reach $18 billion by 2014
The upshot: Sure, we can hug our iPads (like the young girl who unpacked hers at the launch last week), but text reaches real people and a real mass market at that! There’s a lot more organizations can do with text messaging. The possibilities are limited only by their own imagination. Source
OPERATORS SOLD ON TEXT. It may come as no surprise, but it’s always good to know what the practitioners say. A new study — commissioned by Comverse and produced by research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan – concludes that text messaging will “continue its dominance in the messaging arena for the foreseeable future and will evolve with additional features over the next three to five years.”
Drawn from interviews with 18 telecom providers across major global regions and with strategic industry professionals, the study predicts new paradigms around text messaging. Examples include: text messaging with contextual presence and location information, as well as a unified identity for messaging that provides a user’s status, personal information, updates and messages in one user interface. Source
The upshot: Another report that confirms the massive success and staying power of text messaging.
Peggy adds: Would like to know more about the “next-gen” messaging services harnessing presence and personalization. If you have examples, please email or @ me (@peggyanne).
Tags: Apple, Comverse, iPhone, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Portio Research, SMS, text mesaging
