Operators are stepping up spending on security gateway solutions designed to combat SMS/MMS spam and threats, according to new research.
For the full year 2013, the global SMS/MMS security gateway market is projected to reach €51 million – a 70 percent increase over 2012 – Infonetics Research revealed.
Between 2012 and 2017, the market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56 percent.
Despite the increasing popularity of OTT messaging services, around 10 trillion SMS/MMS messages are generated annually.
“The popularity of SMS and MMS has soared over the last decade, but carriers around the globe are just now beginning to seriously evaluate and deploy mobile messaging security solutions, forced by economic, regulatory, and attack conditions,” said Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for security at Infonetics Research.
“A trend we’re seeing as a result of regulatory pressure is major carriers in a region looking at SMS/MMS security solutions as a group and selecting a single vendor or technology, causing initial adoption to happen at once in that country or region.”
Cloudmark and AdaptiveMobile are the current leaders from a revenue perspective, according to Infonetics.
However, the research firm expects the next 12 months to bring consolidation, with major networking/telecom equipment suppliers and focused network security players entering the fray.
According to a Juniper Research report released last October, 80 percent of smartphones were unprotected throughout 2013 despite growing consumer awareness of mobile security products.
Have you voted for your European Operator CTO of the Year? Click here to vote.