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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

RIM boss ignores the questions when asked about BlackBerry difficulties and competitors

What went wrong? What did you learn from the iPhone?

Mark Bridge writes:

Live TV and radio interviews. They can be worrying things, even when you’re not expecting to be challenged too much. I know this from experience. So when your company is launching a much-delayed operating system, you’d expect a few difficult questions… and you’d be ready with a response.

The official response of RIM is apparently to ignore the questions.

Author: The Fonecast
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Mobile phones transform lives in Africa

Jennifer Lazuta of voanews.com writes:

Rene Mendy, a street vendor in Dakar, has never had enough money to open a bank account. But now, thanks to an emerging mobile phone banking service, he has access to many financial services.

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Last week at The Fonecast: 28th January 2013

Figuring out the figures

Mark Bridge writes:

I didn’t study economics at college, which is probably one of the reasons I have a very simple perspective on quarterly results. As far as I’m concerned, they fall into one of three categories: much as expected, better than expected or worse than expected. Anyway, it’s the time of year when some of the biggest names in the mobile telecoms industry publish their financial results – so here we go.

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Bringing personalised radio to your smartphone

We interview Shankar Meembat about the UTuneMe radio app

Mark Bridge writes:

Targeted advertising on mobile devices is something we’re all getting increasingly familiar with. Visit a web site and there’s a good chance you’ll see an advertisement that’s aimed directly at you, perhaps using information about the sites you’ve previously visited, the type of smartphone you’re using or even your location.

Yet listen to the radio or stream music on your smartphone and that same level of personalisation hasn’t been aavailable. That’s all changing now, with help from a new service called UTuneMe.

Author: The Fonecast
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Why Huawei should get out of the mobile handset market

Why Huawei should get out of the mobile handset market

or why Huawei need to spend their £1.6 billion profit on marketing

James Rosewell writes:

Huawei is a company one can’t miss at Mobile World Congress. They bring their own building!  Plus last year a wonderful “Pegasus” flying horse sculpture made using Ascend handsets was proudly displayed next to the main fountain to hail the launch of the Ascend series of handsets.

Huawei has been busy following MWC12. They now run major parts of Everything Everywhere, Three and O2’s network in the UK. On a less positive note they’re not welcome in the US.

But how has the devices side of the business performed?

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A month of mobile: O2 counts on 3, Microsoft counts to 10 and Apple counts its profits

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