Airwide Solutions, a provider of next generation mobile messaging and mobile internet infrastructure, applications and solutions, today debated the results of a global research report into mobile messaging trends at a roundtable event held today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and attended by industry representatives from O2, Bango, Cloudmark, Telmap, Telepin and others.
The roundtable concluded that:
· The future of the messaging industry is healthy with all panelists predicting strong growth for the next 12 months.
- Growth will come from the deployment of advanced data services, the introduction of innovative new applications, an increase in the use of the mobile internet, the continued adoption of smartphones and the growth in mobile payments particularly in developing markets.
- Revenues from SMS will continue to grow.
- SMS will provide the foundation for next generation data services such as mobile social networking, mobile applications, mobile broadband, the mobile internet and mobile advertising.
- Mobile messaging will also be the driver for enterprise based messaging services such as text reminders for dental or doctor appointments, text based energy meter readings and even interactive teaching tools to make learning more fun for school children. Services that are relevant for the end user and easily accessible will be the ones that win out.
- Ensuring that operators have a flexible and reliable infrastructure in place to support the roll out of these services will be the key to their success.
- Mobile security is still an issue. As SMS becomes increasingly used for financial transactions, it is a medium which will also become more appealing for hackers to exploit. Mobile operators can use their infrastructure as an enabler to deploy new services but also to protect subscribers from possible security risks.
These conclusions support the results of a survey which Airwide also unveiled today in the form of a whitepaper. The whitepaper states that:
· 100% of operators interviewed do NOT believe the current economic situation will impact upon their spending next year.
- 100% of operators surveyed are seeking to use the investment they have made in developing their mobile messaging infrastructure in order to introduce value-added services such as mobile social networking, mobile applications, mobile broadband, IM-and presence-based services and the mobile internet.
- Two thirds of operators believe SMS will be the foundation of these next generation data services.
- Of all the data services cited:
- 75% of operators will be investing in mobile social networking and/or mobile applications;
- 62.5% of operators will be investing in mobile broadband
- 50% of operators will be investing in location based services, IM-presence based services and/or the mobile internet;
- One third of operators believe mobile advertising will play a very important role in the future growth of mobile messaging;
- 50% of operators believe mobile broadband will play a very important role in expanding the messaging market.
Jay Seaton, CMO at Airwide Solutions commented: "In this difficult economic climate, mobile messaging is defying the trends – from consumers abandoning fixed lines to rely on mobiles, to enhanced services that increase traffic and revenue per users, to richer applications for both subscribers and enterprises. This is fueling the growth in mobile data services and ushering in an era of richer, more relevant mobile experiences. As operators look to introduce these next generation value added services, companies such as Airwide Solutions are perfectly positioned to not only provide operators with the highly reliable infrastructure they need to support the roll out of these services, but also the flexible foundation to enable operators to react to the unpredictable and ever-changing service demands of subscribers. This is an opportunity for fast moving operators to be on the forefront of this trend and offer subscribers the enhanced services they desire."
Present at the roundtable were:
· Jay Seaton, CMO, Airwide Solutions
- Nick Lane, Nick Lane, Founder, Direct2Mobile
- Mike Short, VP of Research and Development, O2
- Vince Kadar, CEO, Telepin Software
- Ronen Soffer, CTO, Telmap
- Kate Berg, CMO, M3Mobile
- Robert Thurner, Commercial Director, Incentivated
- Paul Palmieri, President & CEO, Millennial Media
- Andy Bovingdon, VP Product Marketing, Bango
- Jamie De Guerre, CTO, Cloudmark
- Mike Grenville, Editor, 160 Characters
- Pamela Clark Dickson, Editor, Mobile Messaging Analyst
- James Middleton, Editor, Telecoms.com