Though the global technology sector had a tough time at the turn of the century, the mobile industry has continued to grow and total mobile subscribers worldwide passed 1.5 billion in 2004, from just 17 million in 1991. This growth in the subscriber base is expected to continue for the rest of this decade and cross the 2 billion mark by the end of 2005, and be over 3.5 billion by 2010. On a regional level, the high-growth Asian markets are estimated to account for half of the total subscriber base, with China and India leading the way. Other low penetration markets, such as Latin America and Africa, will also contribute significantly to the overall growth of the worldwide market, while the number of mobile subscribers in Europe and North America is expected to continue growing slowly until saturation occurs.

Worldwide, after numerous setbacks and delays, 3G has finally come of age and the resultant fast new networks offer ample scope for newer services and lower operating costs. The number of 3G subscribers is gradually growing, though the new technology still has a long way to go before it achieves mass market penetrationin developed markets. Despite the industry talk about advanced new data services and the realization of the‘wireless Internet’, only one non-voice service can be truly be described as a mass market success: SMS.

Since the first commercial SMS services started gaining ground in the late 1990’s, the texting phenomenon has grown to epic proportions and in 2005 it looks certain that we will see global SMS volumes exceeding 1000 billion messages in 2005. In the space of just a few years, mobile messaging has become an immense global industry generating over $55 Billion USD in 2005, the largest portion of this revenue comes from simple SMS, worth an estimated $35 Billion USD in 2005. The growth of MMS messaging has been sluggish since its launch in 2002. Network interoperability, format standardization, steep handset prices and inefficiencies in handset technology have plagued growth in MMS usage volumes. The uptake of MMS has been higher in advanced markets, such as Western Europe and Korea, but has continued to disappoint mobile operators, and now mobile IM and mobile email are looking for their place in global messaging markets too.

This new market study takes an in-depth independent look at global mobile messaging markets and delivers an accurate picture of the state of mobile messaging today. Reading this report you will gain a thorough understanding of why SMS has been such a global success, why MMS has failed to deliver on its promises and where newer messaging technologies fit into the bigger picture.

Key questions addressed in this study:

Worldwide, 90% of non-voice operator service revenues (except inJapanandKorea) come from SMS. Voice still represents 80%-90% of all mobile traffic worldwide, and off the remaining 10%-20% that is non-voice, SMS represents approximately 90% of non-voice revenue worldwide, perhaps 80% in developed markets likeWestern Europe. As a result, revenue from SMS makes an extremely significant contribution to the all-important ‘data as a % of revenue’ metric which so many operators are working hard to improve. Mobile operators cannot afford to let SMS revenues fall, yet all the attention seems to be on MMS, 3G, PTT, HSDPA and other new technologies, while SMS does not receive the glory it deserves. This report explores these issues in details and makes recommendations for increasing future messaging revenues.