Juniper Research has forecast that the amount of mobile messaging traffic worldwide will reach 28.2 trillion messages per year by 2017, nearly double the 14.7 trillion messages expected to be sent this year. It says most of this growth will come from instant messaging (IM), which will account for over a quarter of all mobile messages in five years’ time.
However, operators will continue to make more money from traditional operator services such as SMS and MMS than from instant messaging.
The predictions come in a new report that’s looked at all ‘mobile messaging’ services: SMS text messages, MMS, IM, Email, Rich Communications Services (RCS) and Social Media messages.
Daniel Ashdown. co-author of the report, said “SMS is 30 years old; but it is still going strong because a text message will reach almost anyone.”
SMS traffic will remain the largest type of messaging traffic, according to the report, as mobile subscribers continue to embrace its reach and reliability.
[Whitepaper; report]