What next for text?

Mobile operators need to find something with the mass-market appeal of SMS (short messaging service) to ensure they can keep their revenues up.

That's according to one analyst who warned that though we may be sending more texts than ever, operators are making less money from them.

It was revealed today by the Mobile Data Association (MDA) that Brits send a billion text messages a week - as many as were sent in the whole of 1999. But according to John Delaney of Ovum, operators are making less money per text.

"Even if SMS traffic keeps growing at current rates into the future, mobile operators can't rely on revenues from SMS growing at the same pace. Part of the reason why people are still increasing their usage of SMS is that the effective price per message is going down," Delaney said.

Mike Short, chairman of the MDA, said that consumers' passion for sending text messages was a catalyst for the use of other mobile services.

"Text messaging remains important but as part of a much larger and more complex mobile communications industry. While the trend towards operators offering 'all-you-can-eat' tariffs increases, this will act as a catalyst for consumer’s passion for all things mobile."

However, according to Delaney, mobile operators need to come up with another killer application if they want to protect their profits.

"Mobile operators need to plan an encore: a new type of communications service that can have the same kind of mass-market appeal as SMS, and that can inject new growth into mobile messaging revenues," Delaney said.

www.text.it
www.ovum.com

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