So you would guess that mobile data services (including email and IM) are eating into the SMS plate.
Wrong.
SMS usage is up 50% worldwide, with 620 billion messages sent in Q1. SMS revenues are up as well ($34.3 billion in a quarter!), although they do not follow the growth in messages directly, because of the bundles.
How do you read this? Well, let me try:
- Consumers want messaging more than ever
- Consumers are still willing to spend a lot of money on messaging
- If you add email and IM in the mix, that does not kill SMS
- Email and IM are additional sources of significant revenues for carriers