Mobile IM will supplant SMS as the mainstream messaging service by 2011

Mobile instant messaging (MIM), especially in markets such as North America, will supplant SMS as the mainstream messaging service by 2011, as smartphones and wireless Internet proliferate. According to a new report from Portio Research.

The report, Mobile Messaging Futures 2007-2012, concluded that mobile messaging is an integral and vital part of the mobile industry and contributes significantly to worldwide total mobile service revenues.

Current and future prospects of the SMS industry, is still looking bright, as SMS continues to be a phenomenal success as the cheapest, quickest and easiest to use form of peer-to-peer mobile communication. Although the growth of SMS revenues will not be as aggressive as the growth of SMS volumes due to declining prices, by 2012 global SMS revenues are expected to reach $67 billion, driven by 3.7 trillion messages.

Although revenues from voice calls still comprise 80 percent of worldwide total mobile revenues, operators globally are focusing on data services for increasing their average revenue per user (ARPU). Apart from SMS and MMS, mobile e-mail and mobile IM are showing strong future growth prospects in some geographic regions.

Aside from North America and Europe, mobile e-mail is expected to grow significantly in the mobile markets of the Asia Pacific region. The success of mobile e-mail is largely driven by the growth of more advanced handheld devices, such as PDAs and smartphones, so obviously growth of these services will be broadly restricted to the wealthier, more advanced markets for the immediate future.