|
"Text messaging is one of the most successful applications in the telecoms sector to date - a service that generates at least three times the gross revenues of the entire global recorded music industry. Text messages require just 140 bytes. Charged at an average $0.20 per message, a megabyte of data generates over $1,400 per megabyte.
Deloitte: “Telecommunications Predictions: TMT Trends 2007" - Apr 2007 |
|
|
 |
The adoption of new technology relies on the strength of its development tools. Mobile messaging has taken the world by storm and companies that are not taking advantage of this exciting technology are likely to fall behind in customer acquisition and retention campaigns. Given the speed and ensured delivery of mobile messaging plus the relatively high response rate compared to traditional mass media formats; developers cannot afford to ignore the need for innovative applications in this rapidly growing market.
With more people owning mobile handsets than those having internet access, SMS offers a means of reaching a larger portion of the population than via email alone. Over a fifth of the world’s population has a mobile device plus access to the Internet and experts forecast that the number of mobile phone subscribers and customers should approach 4 billion by the end of the decade.
SMS enabling an application or website opens the door to a mobile world of immediate push technology.. SMS text messaging provides a virtually instantaneous, simple and low-cost method to send a variety of messages and notifications to recipients that are not stationed at their PCs or logged into their email clients. Sending notifications such as system alerts to system administrators, quotation requests to a salesforce or even stock alerts to brokers can be delivered to recipients’ mobiles on the go, regardless of their location.
SMS offers push technology, unlike email that requires an email client to poll the email server regularly to find out if the server has any new messages. Even cell phones that are capable of reading emails are still reliant on "pull" technology, with only few exceptions. Using SMS, time sensitive notifications can be sent and received in real time, with the added advantage of two-way messaging allowing for responses to be received in real time too.
The mobile phone is a personal communication device that enables people to communicate with whom they like, when they like and where they like. In 2007, according to the IDC, more than $28 billion was generated by mobile short message service (SMS), multimedia message service (MMS) and instant messaging (IM) services between the United States and Western Europe alone. Adding email to this mix, it is clear that more then 50% of all mobile data revenue is derived from messaging alone. This is expected to keep on rising. The recent IDC survey shows that in the United States entertainment and business related premium alerts were the most popular with US consumers. The global mobile advertising market will be valued at over $16 billion by 2011 says M:Metrics and already over 40 million US consumers receive SMS advertisements with a response rate of 12%.
Mobile messaging cannot be ignored as a passing phenomenon.
Big and small business owners and marketers are increasingly turning to the mobile platform to reach new customer markets and ensure that they retain their existing customers. Text messaging, multimedia message service (MMS) and instant messaging (IM) plus mobile email will be their main area of focus. The challenge to developers is to create mobile messaging applications that are fun, easy to use, offer an interactive experience and that connect people in a rich multimedia environment.
Cell phones are used by over 3.1 billion people globally.
89% of major brands plan to market via mobile phones by 2008.
40% of major brands have deployed text messaging (SMS) campaigns.
Source: Airwide Solutions independent survey of 50 brand name companies
|
Why do leading developers trust Clickatell’s mobile messaging API connections?
Why use Clickatell’s SMS Gateway API connections to SMS-enable your site or application? |
