80 million European mobile consumers will use mobile IM by 2013

80 million European mobile consumers (24% of subscribers) will be using mobile instant messaging (IM) services by 2013, compare to 26.7 million (8%) in 2007, according to a new study by Forrester Research. As Young consumers’ familiarity with PC-based IM and the growing number of IM-capable mobile devices entering the market will drive adoption in Europe.

Mobile IM will displace 13% of SMS traffic in the next six years, but text messaging will continue to grow regardless of the increasingly popularity of mobile IM. Monthly Person-to-Person (P2P) SMS traffic in Western Europe will climb from 190 billion messages in 2007 to 233 billion by the end of 2013, despite the fact that some traffic will have moved to IM.

“Operators still lack a true commitment to backing the technology because of fears that mobile IM will cannibalize revenue from their highly profitable SMS,” said Niek van Veen, analyst of Forrester Research. “But mobile IM’s growth is inevitable and operators’ fears of revenue erosion are greatly overstated. In the long run, IM and presence services will integrate better with handsets' native applications and other services.”

The report “Mobile IM Adoption Forecast Europe: 2007 To 2013,” estimate that Sweden and the UK will lead in mobile IM adoption with 35% and 31% of subscribers using mobile IM respectively by 2013. In Sweden, where SMS usage is low and mobile IM uptake high, mobile IM will replace 28% of SMS traffic, and in Spain it will replace 8% of SMS traffic.