TJAT is short-listed for the Best Mobile Messaging Award at GSMA 2008

Tjat has been short-listed for the ‘Best Mobile Messaging Award’ at this year’s Mobile World Congress event taking place in Barcelona next week. The Mobile Messaging Award highlights the very best of business and consumer messaging services, however and wherever they are delivered.

“The 2008 GSM Association Awards have been specifically designed to showcase the diversity of products and services and the quality, ingenuity and level of innovation that combine to fuel the mobile value chain,” said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association. “Entries this year have again exceeded our highest expectations, reflecting the vibrancy of the mobile industry on a global basis.”

The award winners will be announced at the GSM Association Awards black tie Gala Dinner on Tuesday 12th February 2008 in Barcelona.

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.

Mobile IM will become a mass-market application

As the popularity of mobile messaging services continue to grow, IT research company Gartner is forecasting that Mobile IM will become a mass-market application similar to mobile e-mail in developed markets, initially being adopted by PC-based IM users, who are now able to access their service on their mobile phones, due to partnerships between the operators and the IM providers.

The report, “Market Trends: Mobile Messaging, Worldwide, 2006-201”, estimate that 2.3 trillion messages will be sent across major markets worldwide in 2008, a 19.6% increase from the 2007 total of 1.9 trillion messages. Mobile messaging revenue across major markets will grow 15.7% in 2008 to $60.2 billion, up from $52 billion in 2007.

Mobile messaging usage has increased in all Western European countries, and the growth in the number of messages sent is projected to continue until 2010. A total of 202 billion mobile messages were sent in 2007 in Western Europe, and this is forecast to reach 215 billion in 2008. In North America there were 189 billion mobile messages sent in 2007, and this is forecast to reach 301 billion in 2008.

“Carriers should plan for a future of much reduced margins on messaging services. They should develop messaging platforms, services portfolios and pricing plans that support the broader objectives of customer acquisition and retention, rather than short-term margin enhancements," said Nick Ingelbrecht, research director for Gartner.

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.

Tjat Presents First IMS Based IM for Mobile & Web Communities

After extensive joint development work, Tjat and Comneon (an Infineon subsidiary) have successfully launched a seamless IMS/SIP access solution to web based instant messaging (IM) communities such as ICQ and MSN. The solution is IMS/SIP compliant, taking advantage of Comneon’s SIP framework, an integral part of hundreds of millions of newly-produced handsets over the coming years, making the Tjat solution ready for immediate and future IMS network deployments and migrations.

Our innovative solution, demonstrated at the Mobile World Asia Congress in Macau, drew excitement from all participants, both technical and business oriented. VAS and Network experts, together with IMS infrastructure vendors and Mobile Handset Manufacturers, were especially interested.

The Tjat/Comneon solution enables subscribers to access all Tjat services (IM, Email and Storage) with a rich and native feature set while allowing Operators to offer their subscribers Tjat services, instantly deploying Tjat in IMS or Legacy networks.

The growing popularity of Mobile IM in US

The proliferation of mobile phones with full keyboards has made it easier to send mobile instant messages and drive many IM users to spend more time instant messaging from their cell phones. The AP-AOL Instant Messaging Trends Survey revealed that 25% of IM user in US send IMs from their cell phones, including one in three (32%) teens.

The survey, which examined instant messaging trends and usage habits among 1,246 IM users (836 adults aged 19 and older and 410 teens aged 13-18), shows that nearly three in four teens (70 percent) and one in four adults (24 percent) send more instant messages than emails.

“Instant messaging has made its way into so many areas of our lives and we can now take our buddies with us wherever we go. Whether on our mobile phones, our social profiles or on the desktop at work, our friends, family and co-workers are right there letting us know when they’re free for a question or just to chat,” said David Liu, Senior Vice President, AOL.

Instant messaging is not only popular at home and on-the-go, but workplace use is becoming commonplace. 79% at-work IM users say they have used instant messaging in the office to take care of personal matters. And 19% of IM users say they send more instant messages than emails to their co-workers and colleagues.

Tjat at GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Macau

142 operators from 91 countries will attend the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress from 12 to 15 November 2007 at the Venetian® Hotel in Macau. Tjat cannot afford to miss this important congress!

Tjat therefore will attend the Mobile Asia Congress, using it as a launch pad for the introduction of exciting new mobile instant messaging (MIM) products. Visitors to our booth also will learn about the successful results of our on going partnerships with leading players in the Asia-Pacific mobile industry.