Mobile IM Versus Texting: The Balancing Game From Operators

A good story from IHT about the balancing game operators are playing with mobile IM versus SMS/text…for now, carriers and software makers are struggling to come up with the winning way to bring IM to cellphones without destroying the market for lucrative text/SMS, says the story. It is 10 cents per text versus almost free mobile IM…the answer down the line might be simple..the users will vote.
And then the numbers: In 2005, according to Gartner, SMS generated $70 billion in revenue for the carriers, with a huge gross profit margin of more than 90 percent. Mobile IM generated $55 million in revenue in 2005, according to In-Stat, though that is forecast to grow to more than $3.6 billion by 2009.
Meanwhile, competing services are muddling the field. Some operators (like in Europe, 15 mobile phone companies banding together earlier this year) have created their own branded IM services, while others are bringing the well-known PC IM services – Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger and AOL – to wireless customers. But if the mobile phone companies use an established IM service, they must share the revenue, a fact that some industry experts fear will lead to overpricing.
And then, interperability among various IM services is always an issue.

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