Mobile Ticketing to grow to 15 Billion by 2014 (Juniper Research)

Juniper Research released its latest report on mobile ticketing and predicts that by 2014 nearly 15 billion tickets will be delivered worldwide to consumer’s mobile devices.

Juniper categorizes mobile ticketing into three major segments that cover most of the ticketing applications in the following categories:

• Transportation including Air, Rail and Bus
• Sporting Events, including sports at the club, national and international levels, as well as major international sporting events such as the Olympics and World Cup.
• Entertainment & Events, including live music, theatre, ballet, comedy, cinema, night clubs, museums & galleries & trade shows.

The Juniper report shares that mobile ticketing is being adopted the fastest in the transport sector through SMS, bar codes and apps offered by mass transit, railways and airlines. It predicted mobile ticketing would be more widespread in Cinema’s, Concert halls and sports stadiums by 2014.

The report also stated that in 2009 the majority of mobile ticketing transactions where in the Far East and China. While Europe’s contribution in 2009, of 17% is mainly due to advanced transport ticketing systems in Scandinavia. But the report predicted that Europe would be the leading region by 2014.

March 15, 2010 in Blog   |   No Comments

SMS & MMS Outlook Strong; Text Message Revenues Reaching $233B By 2014

Worldwide Messaging Revenues set to exceed USD 233 billion by 2014

According to a new research published by Portio Research called ‘Mobile Messaging Futures’ reveals that revenues for mobile messaging is expected to reach 233B By 2014. SMS and MMS usage continues to grow worldwide. The Mobile Messaging Futures report, focusing on the overall mobile messaging industry worldwide, indicates that in 2009 alone, the industry generated a $150 billion in revenue, with a projected $233 billion by 2014. The report also reveals that the use of the technology shows no signs of slowing down either.

Text Messaging remains a ubiquitous feature on all cell phones in use today. In 2009 alone, the report suggests, worldwide SMS traffic topped 5 trillion messages, and that figure is set to exceed 10 trillion in 2013.

MMS is ready to break out too in the coming months as carrier finish upgrades to their platforms and allow for interaction via short codes. Full year revenues for MMS in 2009 amount to almost USD 27 billion, an impressive figure, and lest people forget and not far off what SMS was generating a mere 5 years ago. MMS is growing fast in all major regions around the world as affordable camera-equipped handsets flood the market and increasingly become the norm. Read more on MMS here: MMS Messaging

QWASI MMS OUTLOOK: MMS will move mainstream as SMS has done over the last several years offering a true multimedia approach to messaging.

The uses of mobile messaging for business today for entertainment, mobile commerce, mobile coupons, mobile ticketing, mobile donations, mobile search, blasts, alerts and additional mobile marketing.

Read the entire report here: Worldwide Mobile Messaging 2010 Report

February 3, 2010 in Blog   |   No Comments

SMS Preferred Mode of Communication on Mobile

New research continues to point to huge increases in preference for SMS over other forms of mobile communication.

According to a survey conducted by Tekelec (a messaging company powering telecom operator applications), 60% of 45 year olds were found to be just as likely to use SMS as they were to make voice calls from their mobile device. The survey of 500 people in North American and Europe also found that text messaging is gaining on email as the preferred means of daily international communication, with 32% of responses across all ages preferring SMS, compared to 33% for email. And nearly a third of respondents said their use of SMS would increase in 2010.

In addition, more than 80 percent of respondents across all age groups thought they would get a quicker response from a text than from an email or voice message. Women preferred to let their fingers do the talking, with 40% describing themselves as ‘mainly texter’, compared to 30% of men.

One more difference between the sexes: women were more likely to engage in TV voting via text, with 25% versus just 14% of men engaging in such behavior.

But those under 35 were the most likely age group to vote via text, with 16% of them saying they do so, followed by 9% of 35-44 year olds, and 7% of those 45 and older. However, 35-44 year olds are the largest consumers of news and sports by text at 18% compared to 17% for those under 35, and only 8% for those over 45.

SMS – A look ahead at growth for M2M (machine-to-machine)

AT&T and Verizon Wireless nearly doubled their text message traffic from third-quarter 2008 to third-quarter 2009, showing that SMS continues to become even more pervasive.

While person-to-person (P2P) messages will keep increasing, the next major growth area is in fact machine-to-machine (M2M) SMS.

ABI Research recently released data showing that M2M SMS and MMS message volume will have a compound annual growth rate of 40.06 percent from 2008 to 2014 (“Mobile Messaging Services: SMS, MMS, Mobile Email, and Mobile IM,” 4Q 2009).

Brands can capitalize on SMS M2M to more rapidly meet their customers’ needs. For example, vending machines located anywhere with cellular reception can send texts when inventory is low, rapidly and affordably assuring that goods remain in stock. M2M will open up an entirely new growth area as new solutions focused on cost savings emerge.

Bottom Line: SMS & M2M will bring huge growth in mobile over the next decade as consumer prefer SMS for their mobile communication.

January 12, 2010 in Blog   |   1 Comment

Text Message Statistics – October 2009

Text messaging continues to be enormously popular in the US reaching new levels every month.

More than 740 billion text messages carried on carriers’ networks during the first half of 2009. That’s an average of 4.1 BILLION text messages sent/received each day. That’s nearly double the number from last year, when only 385 billion text messages were reported for the first half of 2008.

Wireless subscribers are also sending more pictures and other multi-media messages with their mobile devices—more than 10.3 billion MMS messages were reported for the first half of 2009, up from 4.7 billion in mid-year 2008. MMS stands for MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service and more commonly referred to as ‘Picture Messaging’ to subscribers. iPhone users in the US recently received access to MMS through AT&T last month (read our post: iPhone finally gets MMS). For more information on MMS, see What is MMS post.

Just last year, Nielson Mobile released important trends showing how Texting outpaces Voice as the number one activity on a cell phone.

For the latest CTIA Wireless Carrier Survey, click here.

October 7, 2009 in Blog   |   1 Comment

iPhone FINALLY gets MMS on AT&T

Multimedia Messaging Service, known as MMS has finally landed to iPhone users on AT&T’s network. While users are rejoicing and saying to themselves in disbelief – “it’s about time” – network engineers at AT&T are also wondering how long it will last.

As many throughout the industry know, over the last several years, carriers nerviously build out new networks and watch as they quickly outgrow their platforms. So today, AT&T is doing just that as the introduction of MMS  for Apple’s iPhone could slow or possibly even crash the AT&T network.

It has also been reported that many companies are suspending or delaying the start of their mobile marketing campaigns until after today to avoid giving a push in the midst of a potential blackout. We don’t expect this new feature to crash AT&T. However, never say never.

There have been preliminary tests at AT&T which indicate a substantial strain on the company’s MMS servers. Starting at 10AM Eastern today, it’s do or die as it officially rolls out. As a result, some industry analysts estimate that traffic on AT&T’s already well-stretched wireless network could see a 40% increase in traffic as iPhone excitedly break in the service.

In September 2008, QWASI released a MMS solution for the lack of MMS with an iPhone App called ActivMMS. Unfortunately, like the Google Voice Application, Apple rejected the App without reason. Several appeals still left it dead on arrive.

The iPhone App was recently introduced in the last release  – 3.0 and has been in use in other networks around the world. At&T chose not to support it until it could work out the bugs in its network. The change will not be automatic for users today and requires the user to open iTunes, connect their device and download the new profile.

September 25, 2009 in Blog   |   1 Comment