'Wireless Instant Messaging: Propelling SMS and Desktop IM to the Next Level' examines this key sector. Mobile operators are wise to invest in wireless instant messaging. Operators can obtain far higher revenue per megabyte from messaging services than from generic IP services--today, operators collect approximately 100 times as much. This report provides an in-depth look at wireless instant messaging opportunities and challenges. Essential reading for operators interested in extending SMS's success and public IM service providers interested in tapping enterprise opportunities.

Wireless Instant Messaging will enable mobile phone operators to transform short message service (SMS) into a more powerful service integrating presence, location, sophisticated user preferences, and multiple media. That is one of the conclusions of the new 54-page report, Wireless Instant Messaging: Propelling SMS and Desktop IM to the Next Level, released today by Datacomm Research Company.

?Wireless instant messaging presents significant consumer and enterprise opportunities for mobile phone operators,? said Peter Rysavy, President of Rysavy Research and the report?s author. "A large share of SMS traffic will migrate to feature-rich wireless instant messaging," he added.

?This report makes sense out of the burgeoning instant messaging market, and explains how wireless will spur interoperation between proprietary systems?leading to the widespread adoption of standards,? said Ira Brodsky, President of Datacomm Research Company.

Wireless Instant Messaging: Propelling SMS and Desktop IM to the Next Level is the result of numerous interviews with leading operators, software developers, and IM experts. The report includes sections on Technology Considerations, The Future of Messaging, and Threats, Opportunities & Strategies. More than 50 vendors are profiled.

Rysavy Research provides clients details and insight into wireless networking, assisting them in defining strategic directions, conducting market research, and deploying wireless applications.

Additional conclusions found in Wireless Instant Messaging: Propelling SMS and Desktop IM to the Next Level:

Mobile operators are wise to invest in wireless instant messaging. Operators can obtain far higher revenue per megabyte from messaging services than from generic IP services. Today, operators collect approximately 100 times as much revenue/MB from short message service as they do from IP transport services.

Instant messaging is on the verge of widespread acceptance as a business productivity enhancement tool. As enterprises deploy IM systems, they will want to extend them to mobile users.

The dominant instant messaging systems today are based on proprietary protocols with no interoperability between service providers. However, standards-based solutions will be essential for interoperability between mobile phone operators, Internet-based IM service providers and enterprise systems, as well as to integrate presence and location.

Most wireless IM solutions have been awkward, using either SMS with obtuse session-control messages or WAP minibrowsers. Needed are easy to use local clients that can access multiple services (e.g., enterprise and consumer). Fortunately, the increasing processing power of mobile devices (including Java and BREW support) and standards efforts (e.g., Wireless Village) tend to favor the local client approach.

Successful IM services will ultimately be based on presence-enabled address books. Address books will automatically show the availability of people, perhaps including their location, and will give users means to define communications preferences, e.g., text while in a meeting, location information only when working, and push-to-talk with family members or select friends.
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