Research released by LogicaCMG and STL has revealed that the future success of mobile messaging services is dependent upon much closer interaction between mobile operators and leading Internet players.
The research, conducted among 70 senior figures from the mobile industry attending the recent Telco 2.0 and IMS Services Forum in London, shows that in future, successful mobile messaging will require operators and Internet companies to work together to deliver successful integrated services which take advantage of each industrys respective strengths.
Almost two-thirds (65%) of those questioned said they believed that interoperability with Internet instant messaging (IM) domains, such as Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, GoogleTalk and AOL Instant Messenger, was the most important factor for the success of mobile IM. In addition 28% believe that interoperability with SMS and MMS is crucial to the successful introduction of mobile IM, and only 7.5% believe low-price to be the key. Respondents stressed that this integration needs to go beyond user experience and even include revenue share of the services offered.
Interestingly, 50% of respondents felt that enhancing SMS with presence and conversational chat features will be the most effective way to improve profitability of todays messaging services, enabling operators to introduce differentiated bundled tariffs and better price segmentation.
Considering the future direction of the mobile operators, 62% of respondents stated that the competitive edge of tomorrows operator would lie in providing enhanced access for the end-user, offering anywhere-access to Internet services. This should be topped with a platform for security, identity management and payments facilities on-top-of traditional communications services.
A further 27% of those asked said that tomorrows competitive edge rests with offering increased operator-defined person-to-person communications and person-to-application access, with only 7% suggesting that operators will ultimately move away from pure communication offerings and instead focus on becoming content distributors.
When asked about new revenue sources for operators, 66% of respondents believed that service plans that include discounted messaging services in return for advertising would be effective, half of them being convinced that it will seriously increase profitability.
“With internet giants such as Microsoft, Google and MySpace moving into the mobile space, this research indicates a strong motive for operators to collaborate closely in order to achieve the best potential results for mobile messaging says Logica Director, Marketing and Business Development, Chris Lennartz. Ultimately, the success of future mobile messaging strategies will be determined by the end-user, and if mutual relationships between mobile operators and Internet players can lead to an increasingly fluent service then everyone will benefit.”
For STL, Martin Geddes, Chief Analyst, adds:
“We are already starting to see greater collaboration between mobile players and Internet companies through recent deals between O2 and Bebo, and Vodafone and virtual world site, Second Life, although these do not yet generate upstream advertising revenues for the operators. However, the big question remains: who will control the messaging user experience and thus gain most from these new revenue streams?”