Text Messaging Alive and Well
October 26th, 2006 MobileFreak
Despite the constant announcements and impressive promises of next generation mobile data services, good old fashioned text messaging still accounts for the lion’s share of mobile data revenue.
Frost & Sullivan, the telecom research company that conducted the study, concluded that text messaging, also known as short message service (SMS), accounted for 90% of mobile data revenue in the Asia Pacific region.
The markets, which included China and India, are widely known as the early adopters of mobile services, ahead of Europe and well ahead of the U.S. If SMS remains far ahead of other mobile data services in Asia, you can bet that will be the case in the follower markets of Europe and the U.S. for some time to come.
What does this mean? It means the data services currently being introduced need to (1) come down in price, and (2) be simpler to use. SMS continues to be a huge success (and a cash cow for mobile operators) because of its simplicity and its minimal overhead to the mobile operators (and therefore low cost to subscribers).
There is little doubt that costs for these advanced data services, which include transmitting pictures, videos, or songs, will come down, and that will take time.
To make it simpler, first stop calling it MMS (multi-media services). What is that? It does not ring with the end users. Of course, many operators doing just that by placing their own specific branding to these services (Verizon V-Cast, for example), but I still don’t know what all these names really provide. If I don’t know what the service really, truly means, I’m probably not inclined to ask my provider for it.
I am customer. Don’t make me think.
Entry Filed under: News, SMS, Tools
Here are a few related posts:
Zipit Offers Text Messaging Wireless Device
OMG, Pope Benedict Sends Text Message
Free Text Message Tool Up and Running
Free Text Messaging Tool Now Sends to Powertel, Metro PCS, SunCom
No comments yet.