Report: text messaging to hit 3.7 trillion by 2012

Spending on SMS services worldwide is expected to reach $67 billion by 2012, according to a new report from Portio Research.
The firm forecasts SMS volumes will increase at an even greater pace, with 3.7 trillion messages being sent by 2012.
“If there was one message this report should get across it is this: SMS continues to be a phenomenal success as the cheapest, quickest and easiest to use form of peer-to-peer mobile communication,” said the company. “Markets have continued to grow and greatly exceeded the predictions of similar research carried out in 2005. SMS traffic has not flattened out in mature markets but continued to boom whilst the U.S. market has grown much faster than expected.”
The report predicts mobile instant messaging, particularly in North America, will overtake SMS as the primary messaging service. As a result, carriers should strive for a balance between SMS and IM pricing to prevent cannibalization of SMS revenues in the future, said the report.