Telecom Lead India: The global mobile messaging market
has reached $202 billion in 2011.
The market potential prompts companies to innovate. One
of the biggest themes under discussion in the mobile messaging industry is the
issue of the end of SMS and the booming rise of Over-the-Top (OTT) messaging
services.
Within the mobile space, messaging is the biggest revenue
generator after voice. Within messaging, SMS is dominating and has yielded the
highest revenue for mobile network operators (MNOs) in 2011, according to
Market and Research.
With these largely free or ‘almost free’ OTT messaging services
seeing uptake, it is proper to assess how pressing the concern is that the
highest margin messaging service for operators (SMS) is being cannibalized by
OTT services that are overwhelmingly yet-to-be monetized, and with usage
thereof being largely beyond the control and influence of MNOs.
Global non-SMS services grew to 61% of data revenues in Q3 2011
from 55% in Q3 2010
Recently, Infonetics Research said smartphone penetration
doubled in Q3 2011 to reach 21 percent of wireless users. Year-over-year
smartphone penetration doubled to reach 21 percent of wireless subscriptions by
Q3 2011.
Smartphones have stimulated healthy increases in non-SMS
data revenues that continue to lift operator performance despite declining
voice and static SMS markets. Regionally, non-SMS data revenues grew to 54 percent of total data in Western
Europe and 72 percent in North America.
Over last 12 months, while wireless ARPU fell eight
percent and voice ARPU declined 13-14 percent, data ARPU increased by more than
five percent.
Non-SMS services which have become the real driver of
growth increased from 55 percent of data revenues in Q3 2010 to 61 percent in
Q3 2011.
