Forecast: Mobile messaging spending to $88B by 2012

Worldwide consumer spending on mobile messaging services will increase 15 percent from $65 billion in 2007 to over $88 billion by 2012, according to a new forecast released by market intelligence firm Strategy Analytics. In all, Strategy Analytics believes that in 2012, mobile messaging--SMS, MMS, mobile email and IM--will account for over 40 percent of total consumer spending on mobile data services; while the forecast anticipates SMS will remain the primary focus of consumer messaging spend, traditional PC-based messaging services like mobile email and IM are also expected to experience rapid growth thanks to growing availability of low-cost, flat-rate data plans--Strategy Analytics predicts mobile email will represent 20 percent of total mobile messaging spending by 2012. In addition, the report speculates that SMS will continue to gain traction in the North American market, with the region contributing roughly 25 percent of total end-user spend on mobile messaging by 2012--in Western Europe, SMS revenues have hit a plateau due to price erosion, even as overall traffic continues to increase.

For more on the Strategy Analytics forecast:
- read this release

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