Forget texting, forget emails: MIM's the way to go

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 29 April 2008 02:05

IT Industry - Market

Market research firm TNS Technology is predicting that mobile instant messaging (MIM) will overtake text messaging and possibly PC-based e-mail to become the primary means of non-voice communication between individuals.

TNS Technology has arrived at this conclusion after interviewing 17,000 respondents across 30 countries for its Global Insight study. It says the study showed that "once mobile users adopt MIM it overtakes other messaging tools to become the primary non-voice method of interacting. For those who do use MIM: "It is the most used feature on their phones: 61% use it daily, compared to only 55% who use SMS daily and only 12% who use e-mail on their mobiles."

According to Matthew Froggatt, managing director of global technology for TNS, "Once a mobile phone user has access to the Internet from their handset, the cost of instant messaging is next to nothing. With consumers being accustomed to instant messaging from their PC, and more mobile operators offering unlimited use of Web browsers, the take-up of MIM is going to increase significantly leaving SMS and fixed e-mail from PC behind."

This could represent a real challenge to mobile operators for whom the relatively high cost of SMS generates significant revenues. Froggatt adds: "Where mobile operators have profited heavily from SMS, these findings present a real challenge for their businesses. Do they try and keep consumers focused on SMS to maintain their revenue base, or offer consumers more choice in messaging? With increasing Internet functionality on new mobile phones, and MIM's strong mass-market appeal, operators may have no choice but to promote this feature more widely."

TNS claims that 11 out of every 100 messages sent by mobile devices or fixed PC globally are instant messages. "However, among MIM users, 36 out of every 100 messages sent is an IM by their mobile, making this the dominant messaging form for these users." It adds that, "Surprisingly, MIM users also use fixed e-mail less with 21 out of every 100 messages sent via this medium, compared to 31 messages among all consumers."

According to TNS eight percent of all mobile users globally currently use MIM, with the highest number of users in Hong Kong (23%). Top cities in China are also seeing a high number of users (16%) with India (15%) and Brazil (10%) following closely. However: "There are some notable exceptions to the ubiquity of SMS messages, like the United States where SMS did not take off until relatively recently and Japan where consumers moved straight to mobile e-mail."