A report available from mobile software company Comverse (and conducted by Frost & Sullivan) says SMS text messaging will continue its dominance of the messaging arena for the foreseeable future, although it is likely to evolve with additional features over the next three to five years. This evolution is expected to add presence and location information to today's 160-character standard.
Ronald Gruia, Principal Telecom Analyst for Frost & Sullivan, said "SMS’s massive success and staying power give the industry valuable insight into its transition to next-generation messaging. Simple accessibility, ubiquitous network interoperability, ease of use, affordability and price predictability for text messaging are key guideposts as the industry evolves new messaging paradigms and migrates to next-generation networks."
The number of text messages sent worldwide every year is now approaching four trillion.