Although revenues from voice calls still comprise 80% of worldwide total mobile revenues, operators globally are eyeing data services to increase their average revenue per user (ARPU). Of the various data services available, SMS, according to Portio Research, actually accounts for approximately 75% to 80% of non-voice service revenues worldwide.

The ascent of SMS (Short Message Service) as a revenue stream and gateway to premium services has nabbed the attention of manufacturers, carriers and most importantly, both enterprise and residential customers.

And it’s no wonder. Analysts predict SMS revenues of between $60 billion and $80 billion worldwide in 2007, with the number of SMS messages expected to reach a whopping 1.8 trillion in 2010. Add in an ABI Research forecast of more than 100 million handsets with touchscreens predicted to ship in 2008, and 500 million by 2012, and the emergence of SMS as the real deal in messaging is even more appealing.

The result is an intensifying search by carriers for new applications, technologies and business models in the SMS space, and enhancements to existing platforms.

“Evidence proves SMS is a messaging gateway to other services. We’re seeing strong results in customer surveys and once SMS is used, people send lots more messages. It’s extremely addictive, sticky and opens up new usages by mobile phone device users. And SMS takes up very little network capacity. It’s growing virally in the United States and we’ll see more growth,” says Daniel Longfield, industry analyst for Frost & Sullivan.

Get the facts about SMS Text Messaging! According to SocialTimes.com, “Consumer receptivity to mobile marketing alerts is high, with a third of those receiving marketing messages more likely – due to the messages – to visit the promoting company’s website (34%) or retail location (33%).”

YOUR MESSAGE GETS THROUGH:

Text messages are read by 94% of recipients.
Average text message read within 4 minutes (compared to email - 48 hours).

TEXTING NOT JUST FOR TEENS:

72%+ of adults send/receive at least one text each day.

Adults text an average of 10 times each day.

50% of SMS users are aged 35+.

95% of 18-29 year olds text message.

YOUTH:

Average teenage girl sends/receives 4,050 messages each month.

Ages 12-45 will send 60% more SMS messages than voice calls.

HUGE MARKET POTENTIAL:

255+ Million Mobile Phone users in the USA (roughly 85% of population).

Four mobile phones are sold for every PC sold.

Two times as many SMS users than email users.

Worldwide, 200,000 texts are sent every second.

3.5 million message per-minute in the United States.

Are You Text Message Marketing Yet?