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Friday, March 30, 2012

Are social media and smartphones really killing SMS and MMS?

Mark Bridge writes:

A couple of research reports this week have noted that text messaging and picture messaging growth is slowing down. Could this be the end for our trusty friend SMS and its bolder, brighter (and slightly flakier) sibling MMS?

Perhaps the beginning of the end, I’d say. But reports of their death are exaggerated.

Portio Research has just published the latest edition of ‘Mobile Messaging Futures’, its five-year forecast of messaging. It notes that the much-derided MMS service has until recently been the second-greatest revenue generating non-voice mobile service. For example, last year almost $31 billion of the total $202 billion generated worldwide by mobile messaging came from MMS. In total, MMS is expected to generate more than $250 billion from 2009 to 2016.

However, recently things haven’t been as good. Last year, mobile email generated more revenue than MMS.

John White of Portio Research said “The combination of smartphones and 3G has extended the novel idea of multimedia file sharing with appropriate simplicity. In addition, reducing mobile data costs make services/applications - such as social networking, mobile e-mail, photo-sharing clients and video streaming - much cheaper than MMS. Sharing multimedia with multiple ‘friends’ is virtually a click away, something MMS cannot offer - even now.”

Even despite this warning, the company isn’t forecasting an MMS decline - just slower growth.

The latest report at Strand Consult is headlined “Smartphones are helping kill SMS”. It’s blaming unified messaging for a decline in SMS, with consumers being offered a ‘seamless’ choice of SMS, MMS, email, Facebook, Skype and many other options. Instead of choosing to send a text message, they choose a contact and are offered a choice of options - and may even have an option selected by the device automatically.

Strand Consult’s research note says there’s “no doubt that these types of contact applications are moving SMS traffic away from the mobile operators”.

Yet SMS is still growing worldwide, albeit less dramatically than in previous years. Some networks may indeed be seeing a decline in messages sent from smartphones - but there’s still plenty happening in the world of SMS, from automated banking alerts to SMS voting.

‘Over the top’ instant messaging services, initiatives such as joyn and unified messaging apps are indeed a threat to SMS and MMS. But killing them?  I think these tough old messaging services are rather more robust than they may look.

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1 comments on article "Are social media and smartphones really killing SMS and MMS?"

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3/30/2012 11:53 PM

Text messaging is profitable for you marketing campaign due to its simplicity and lower costs.text messages have clearly been a revolution for people who are unable to make traditional phone calls, it is unclear whether text messages will take over traditional phone service.

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Opinion Articles

‘The Eyes Have It’ at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

DoCoMo are one of many network operators and handset manufacturers demonstrating innovative new products as Mobile World Congress. Our eye was caught by the employee demonstrating “Eye Controlled Earphones”. It’s a good job the ladies from the CBOSS stand weren’t walking past at the time.

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'Mobile Money Monday' at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Monday’s Mobile World Congress conference agenda dedicated one of 4 streams to Mobile Money - Transfers, Transactions and Technology allowing all stakeholders to share experiences and debate the future of Mobile and Money.

Two types of service dominated presentations and panel discussions; Near Field Communication (NFC) technology enabling payment at traditional Point of Sale (PoS), and the Mobile Wallet replacing plastic or cash.

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‘Innovation Corner’ at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Here’s my pick of the 3 most innovative companies I’ve uncovered at the 2010 Mobile World Congress.

Cootek.com win the prize for simplest innovation... an accurate touch screen keyboard. They’re a few months away from being ready to release the software to handset manufacturers, but the demo handsets worked very well. The keyboard assumes the user is not going to press the intended key, but in fact might miss and press another key in the same area. Based on this knowledge and an extensive dictionary of words and language context, it’s able to determine the intended word with surprising accuracy. I sincerely hope their technology will be made available for the Nexus One in the not too distant future.

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Google “Mobile First” from Eric Schmidt’s Key Note at Mobile World Congress

James Rosewell writes:

Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, presented a compelling vision of a mobile centric future. The phone has become the “high value end point” for Google services enabled by a combination of increasing handset power, mobile data networks and cloud computing. By far the scarcest resource is the bandwidth available through the mobile data networks. Google appear committed to work with Mobile Network Operators (MNO) to maximise bandwidth usage, although several audience questions suggested scepticism from the main stream mobile industry. Eric expressed a need to maintain a harmonious relationship with MNOs stating Google could not operate its service on mobile devices without their co-operation.

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The great Windows Mobile 7 conspiracy theory

Mark Bridge writes:

I like a good conspiracy theory. A good one, mind you. None of this “Funny thing happened on the way to Mars” nonsense. Oh no, not me. And, despite occasionally mirroring Jerry Fletcher by balancing a bottle on the door handle, I’ve never been inclined to publish such a theory. Until now.

You see, it’s Mobile World Congress in a fortnight’s time. Which is when the great and the good of the mobile industry – along with their mates and hangers-on – head for Barcelona. Microsoft will be there. They’re holding a press briefing on Monday afternoon. And there’s a lot of talk about Windows Mobile 7 being (unofficially) on the agenda. But where’s the evidence?

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