Mobile Messaging Update: Pervasive Consumer Use Offers Unique Engagement Opportunities

Twenty years ago, the only form of mobile messaging was SMS, and it offered the only pragmatic mobile data service: it had broad reach, standardization, and carrier interoperability. That's a far cry from where messaging is today. With smartphones representing the majority of mobile phones in many geographies and on the rise in all of them, messaging capabilities are expanding and delivering content that is immediate, contextual, and serves customers right in their moment of need. This report gives eBusiness professionals guidance on why organizations should keep messaging as part of their mobile mix when trying to reach mobile phone owners in both the US and other regions. It is an update to the "Text Messaging (SMS) Overview: The Workhorse Of Mobile" report originally published on March 7, 2012. We revised it to factor in new data and interviews as of July 2014.