Analyst rings death knell for SMS

Allen Scott, general manager at communications developer NeuStar NGM, believes that mobile instant messaging (IM) is the way forward as it allows consumers to do so much more with their phones.

"Next-generation messaging will act as an easy-to-use communications tool and control point for users," he said.

"Mobile IM acts as a plug-in to other applications and services such as social networking, music sharing and dating.

"This is partly because of the awareness many users have of PC-based IM, and partly because of the viral nature of the service.

"But mostly it is because users already understand the benefits of messaging and recognise that mobile IM takes SMS to a new level with the added benefit of presence information."

Full Story on SMS declining revenues and the texting market at VNUNET.com