Posted on 1st March 2013 by Reinhard Seidel
Where’s the SMS market headed? Up in a big way, according a recent study.
Research presented by William Dudley of SAP Mobile Services that obtained the perspectives of a wide range of mobile innovators and industry experts concluded that mobile services, such as SMS in general and SMS as a mobile marketing tool for customer engagement, are entering a new phase of growth and development.
People around the globe send and receive text messages on a daily basis. In fact, it is estimated that more than 75 percent of the world’s population can be reached via SMS and in general, more mobile device users than ever prefer texting over talking.
Even developing countries have seen an uptick in the usage of SMS, often for purposes beyond friendly chatting. SMS enables companies, organizations, governments and others to share crucial information at the right time and place, including life-saving medical guidance in areas where no other form of mass communication is possible.
SMS for mobile marketing and branding is also on the rise. Individual businesses, big brands, schools, banks, healthcare providers, marketers and others are increasingly opting to connect with customers via SMS to advertise specials and discounts, issue coupons, provide information, send appointment reminders, share breaking news, take customer polls, etc.
And businesses are finding that more customers are opting in to SMS messaging as they become aware of the advantages SMS has to offer. All this has led to a huge increase in usage of SMS services, such as Clickatell’s Mobile Campaign Manager platform.
Informa Telecoms & Media expects that by 2015, total SMS traffic will hit 8.7 trillion text messages annually. Other analysts predict that the totals could be even higher, in the range of 10 trillion messages annually.
Numbers like that will certainly keep SMS afloat for a long time to come – no SOS for SMS needed!
