As the popularity of SMSs continue to grow, Gartner forecasts 2.3 trillion messages will be sent across major markets worldwide in 2008, a 19.6 percent increase from the 2007 total of 1.9 trillion messages. Mobile messaging revenue across major markets will grow 15.7 percent in 2008 to $60.2 billion, up from $52 billion in 2007.

Although mobile messaging traffic volumes will continue to show strong growth in many markets, operator margins on messaging services have become progressively thinner as a result of competition and market saturation. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for SMS revenue in major markets worldwide from 2002-2006 was 29.8 percent. From 2007-2011, the CAGR for SMS revenue is forecast to be 9.9 percent.

“In many markets, there has been strong pressure on operator margins for text messaging services and this has been driven by often intense competition between carriers,” said Nick Ingelbrecht, research director for Gartner. “At the same time, consumers have grown accustomed to large or unlimited bundles of inclusive SMS as part of their basic cellular service package. Carriers should plan for a future of much reduced margins on messaging services. They should develop messaging platforms, services portfolios and pricing plans that support the broader objectives of customer acquisition and retention, rather than short-term margin enhancements.”

Asia/Pacific and Japan are the biggest consumers of mobile messaging. Gartner estimated that there were 1.5 trillion messages sent in 2007, and the number will grow to 1.7 trillion in 2008. Volumes of short messages and picture messages will increase, but growth rates are expected to slow in line with the saturation of mobile connections. Volumes of photo messaging will start to stall in the next few years as users increasingly share photos through mobile communities and social network portals rather than sending them directly to one another.

 
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Airwide Solutions has published its forecast for this year’s New Year mobile messaging peak. The short message service (SMS) celebrated its heritage and strong performance, turning fifteen this year, and is forecast to continue its consistent growth and annual celebratory peak.

This year Airwide anticipates the USA to lead the western world with nearly 730 million messages expected to be sent to bring in the new year. The UK also continues to be a leader in the west with 280 million messages expected to be sent, equivalent to 4.6 texts per capita. Yet it is Asia that should witness the largest volumes. Despite the main celebration in China being during Chinese New Year later in the year, Airwide still expects SMS volumes for the 31st December to 1st January celebrations to beat the rest of the world. A typical day in China sees 1.6 billion texts sent, outdoing the previous leaders the Philippines .

Switzerland is the most prolific at texting their friends and families as the clock strikes midnight, sending nearly seven times as many messages at New Year than on an average day, with over 75 million SMS predicted to be sent. This is closely followed by Greeks, who send just under five times as many messages as a typical day, this year expecting to see 35 million messages at New Year.

On a more modest level, but still topping previous growth, Telenor in Norway can expect to see 33.4 million SMS New Year messages. Similarly, Czech Republic could send 3.3 times as many mobile messages to greet the New Year as they do on a typical day, with over 55 million expected.

Belgium is forecast to double its 2004 New Year figure to 46.7 million messages.

The French, on the other hand, seem to prefer the traditional face-to-face greetings at New Year, as they send no more mobile messages at New Year than any other typical day, currently around 51 million messages.

“Airwide was involved in the sending of the first ever SMS message, fifteen years ago this December. Back then no-one anticipated it to become so prolific. Mobile messaging, led by SMS, still continues to grow and is now complimented by multimedia mobile messaging, mobile marketing, location based services and now mobile instant messaging,” says Jay Seaton, CMO of Airwide Solutions. “New Year is usually the biggest peak in messaging every year and this year will be no exception.”

cellular-news.com

The Apple iPhone is easily one of the hottest electronic gadgets of the year, getting everyone excited about touchscreen displays and the marrying of music with voice conversations. It’s not exactly an exclusive device, however, because just about anyone can waltz into an AT&T dealer and ask for a touchtastic mobile. If you want to be a little more special, you may want to consider getting a Platinum Edition Apple iPhone. This is because only 250 units will be produced.

To be sold through GoldStriker, the Platinum iPhone comes at quite a premium over its non-platinum counterpart. Whereas a regular iPhone goes for about $400, the platinum version is ringing up at a cool £1099.95. That works out to about US$2,230, meaning that you can have one of these or five of the garden variety phones.

Looking for special features? Keep looking, because the Platinum iPhone still boasts the exact same spec sheet. Then again, with a production run of just 250 units, you can feel pretty darn special showing off that Platinum iPhone… until someone steals it and posts it up on eBay.

mobilemag.com

The site is still in beta, but TryPhone has quite an interesting concept going on. You may not be able to physically fondle the handset, but TryPhone grants you the online opportunity to test out the user interface on several phones.

Right now, the options are only limited to four handsets: the Apple iPhone, LG Muziq, Samsung Juke, and BlackBerry Pearl. What you get presented with is a digital representation of your chosen handset and most of the buttons are fully interactive. You can access the camera function, the music player, and so on. The interface isn’t 100% accurate, but it does come pretty close.

Oh, and before you ask, the multi-touch feature doesn’t work on the virtual iPhone at all. You can’t even flick through playlists; it’s just the “buttons” that work. Click here to try out TryPhone on your own.

mobilemag.com

This is most definitely one of the coolest third-party iPhone applications that have yet to hit the third-party application market. The iPhone’s capacitance-based multi-touch screen is perfect for on-the-fly, simple manipulation with a brush of the finger. So, it makes sense to put it to good use - like controlling your Pro Tools setup so that you can master your own tracks in real time. That’s right, with the help of a WiFi connection and a MIDI controller on your Pro Tools-rig, Alex le Lievre’s iPhone Pro Tools controller is one slick little app (it works with the iPod Touch, naturally).

Like any good entrepreneur should do, Alex le Lievre is looking to make some bucks off his creation. He plans to release his Pro Tools controlling, third-party iPhone application as soon the iPhone SDK launches next year.

The app lets you mix and fade different tracks and lets you record your actions for playback later. We’re not exactly “hip” to the music-production lingo so we’ll just let the video below do all the talking.

intomobile.com

BenQ Siemens churned out some interesting handsets in their final days as a legit manufacturer. One of our favorites was the BenQ Siemens SL98 reverse slider - rather than sliding the screen upwards to reveals a keypad (like the more traditional sliders that we’ve seen), the screen pops up out of the body.

Now, you won’t be able to grab a BenQ Siemens phone from the defunct company, but this here BenQ Siemens SL98 popped up on eBay’s German site. The auction has, sadly, already ended - but it’s nice to see that the prototype will live on and carry the BenQ Siemen legacy into the future.

Aside from the unique form-factor, the BenQ Siemens packed in a lowly  a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, microSD card slot, and QVGA display - so there isn’t much to be desired. Still, it would have been cool to have show off this one-of-a-kind handset at our next office Holiday-party.

intomobile.com

This is one of those purely speculative type of reports, but for all we know, it could turn out to be true. Following on the recent confirmation from AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson that the next-generation iPhone (the iPhone 2.0, if you will) will be sporting a 3G radio and will be available next year. Now, he didn’t mention when in 2008, but other rumors have indicated that a Q1 2008 launch is in the works.

We’re hearing that the iPhone 2.0 is already expected to miss the rumored March-ish launch window. According to Mehdi Hosseini, an analyst for Friedman Billings Ramsey & Company, the next-gen iPhone was slated for a March or April launch, but will now miss its mark - with the revised launch window predicted to extend into mid-summer of 2008. Hosseini cites information gathered during “recent checks,” and predicts that NAND memory demand will fall in the early part of 2008.

Again, we just want to stress that this is all speculation, and there’s no reason to believe that some “analyst” has information that would indicate that the iPhone 2.0 will be delayed. But, sometimes these things turn out to be true - we’re just hoping this isn’t one of those rumors.

intomobile.com

Apple will release a 3G version of the iPhone sometime next year says AT&T boss Gregg Keizer, Computerworld (US online)

Apple will release a 3G version of the iPhone sometime next year that connects to the internet at much faster speeds than the current model, AT&T’s CEO said Wednesday, according to reports by Bloomberg.com.

At a meeting of the Churchill Club on Wednesday, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said, “You’ll have it next year,” when asked when a 3G iPhone would appear. AT&T is the exclusive mobile carrier for the iPhone in the US.

Current iPhones connect to EDGE-based networks for intensive data-transmission chores such as browsing and email. EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) advertises in-the-field download speeds in the 70Kbit-to-135Kbit/sec. range, although its technical top end is 384Kbit/sec. 3G (third-generation) networks use HSDPA/UMTS technology (High Speed Downlink Packet Access/Universal Mobile Telephone System) and boasts download speeds between 600Kbit/sec. and 1.4Mbit/sec.

The iPhone’s reliance on the much slower EDGE technology was roundly criticized before the smart phone was launched in June, and the issue has come up again as Apple released the iPhone in Europe, where 3G-based cellular networks are much more widespread than in the US. But in September, Apple CEO Steve Jobs made it plain that the iPhone would stick with EDGE for now because of power and battery issues.

“The 3G chip sets are real power hogs,” Jobs said at the UK rollout of the iPhone two months ago. “Our phone has a talk time of eight hours, and that’s really important when you want to use [it] for internet and music. 3G needs to get back up to five-plus hours, something we think we’ll see later next year.”

Although AT&T’s Stephenson essentially confirmed Jobs’ prediction, the telecommunications executive wouldn’t speculate on how much a 3G iPhone might cost. Bloomberg quoted Stephenson as saying, “[Jobs] will dictate what the price of the phone is.”

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined to comment today.

While Apple regularly refuses to talk about any unannounced product, Stephenson’s loose lips won’t materially change current sales of the iPhone, analysts said.

“Some people will now hold off because of Stephenson’s comment, but not enough to impact Apple’s business,” said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray.

Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research Inc., agreed. “Some set of people who are aware of the difference in speeds between EDGE and 3G, who use the iPhone primarily for browsing and who also know that they live where AT&T has 3G, those people might delay buying an iPhone. But the number is not terribly significant.” The question, Gottheil said, shouldn’t be as much about a 3G iPhone as about how widespread AT&T’s 3G network is now and will be in 2008. “Even if a phone is available, what’s the status of AT&T’s infrastructure?” Gottheil added.

Munster took a stab at predicting a timeline for a 3G iPhone. “Will Apple come out with it at Macworld?” Munster asked. “Unlikely. Will they have it ready for the holiday shopping season in 2008? Probably.”

macworld.co.uk