SMS - the levels of revenue

SMS Still Earns Most In Mobile Messaging

While instant messaging and e-mail are landing on more phones, text messaging will still garner 83% of all mobile messaging revenue in the next five years, ABI Research said.

Text messaging, or SMS, will continue to generate the highest revenue across all mobile messaging categories, according to a report from ABI Research.

In a recent report titled "Mobile Messaging Services," the research firmed found that SMS will provide $177 billion in global revenue in 2013.

This represents about 83% of the expected $212 billion in revenue mobile messaging will reach in five years. For the study, ABI divided the market into five segments: SMS, MMS, voice mail, instant messaging, and e-mail/unified messaging.

The research firm noted that regional differences will be key in the success of messaging expansion into the Web, advertising, and mobile social networking.

"Innovative companies are exploring opportunities for expanding mobile messaging access to Web sites as well as targeting customers with content and ads," principal analyst Dan Shey said in a statement. "To be successful with these enhanced services, companies that supply mobile messaging products and services must understand the regional distributions for customer type, payment preferences, message delivery method, and usage."

The research firm also noted that these regional difference could cause established players to re-evaluate their business models.

"Device vendors and messaging platform suppliers serving the global market will have to manage across markets where growth is king -- and other markets where product differentiation is king," said Shey. "This is a great time for smaller companies to develop new products and services individually and in partnerships to serve the niche needs of a region or region or country."