Messaging revenues to top $212B by 2013

Mobile messaging revenues are expected to grow to $212 billion by 2013, according to new predictions from ABI Research.
The growth will be driven by increasing popularity of short message service, strong mobile e-mail uptake in developed regions, messaging adoption in Asia-Pacific and social networking growth.
ABI said different regions will show messaging growth for different reasons, but the common theme among all regions is the timely, cost-effective and customer-specific nature of messaging services. The firm said the messaging market’s next phase will see new input and access capabilities and integration across mobile and fixed platforms.
“Innovation in messaging input, including touch screens, voice-to-text, and advanced keyboard designs, makes initiating a mobile message very easy,” said Dan Shey, principal analyst at ABI.
“By combining input options with greater ease of communicating across mobile and fixed platforms regardless of messaging service, messaging providers serve customers’ needs very well in both the consumer and business domains.”
The firm pointed to advertising insertion as a third phase for mobile messaging.