US wireless SMS and Instant Messaging (IM) markets will grow to 75 million and 63 million subscribers respectively in 2007, according to new forecasts from IDC. By the end of 2007, IDC expects annual subscriber revenue from SMS and IM to grow to approximately US$1.9 billion for each service. Driving these markets will be an embrace of wireless IM in the business market as an inexpensive, easy-to-deploy text messaging solution and widespread adoption of SMS among consumers as a form of entertainment.
"SMS subscribership doubled to more than 21 million subscribers in 2002 and wireless users have very strong interest in both SMS and IM," said Scott Ellison, program director in IDC's Wireless and Mobile Communications research program. "Wireless users are discovering the utility of wireless capabilities like SMS and IM, which in turn represent a natural migration of existing communications behavior from the PC to wireless environments."
IDC believes that the wireless industry should focus on implementation of IM interoperability as soon as possible, noting that the SMS subscriber market doubled in 2002 after the mid-year implementation of SMS interoperability by the major U.S. wireless carriers. IDC also notes that wireless subscribers are quickly understanding the power of wireless messaging applications through better wireless industry marketing and promotions, such as viewer voting for American Idol contestants through AT&T Wireless' text messaging service."
Posted to the site on 30th May 2003
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/8969.php