Business Use of Wireless IM to Exceed $2 Billion
The
business use of mobile Instant Messaging (IM) will grow to a $2
billion-plus opportunity in Western Europe and North America by 2010,
according to a report
from Strategy Analytics. Mobile IM will emerge as a valuable real-time
data complement to voice, mobile email and SMS.
U.S. is expected to have over 20 million installed base of business instant messaging users by 2010 from under 3 million in 2006. Overall, Western Europe and North America will have over 50 million installed base of IM business users by 2010.
This report also examines how Microsoft, IBM, Nokia, and RIM are defining a mobile messaging platform roadmap that integrates additional Presence-enabled functionalities, while a bevy of IM vendors including IMlogic, FaceTime, Akonix and even Oracle are starting to eye the wireless arena with envy. On the network infrastructure level, analysts note that vendors such as Lucent/Alcatel, Nortel, Ericsson and Nokia are all pushing the presence and location benefits of their IMS solutions as enablers of blended/converged services within a single session (IM, VoIP, email & video).
