Hello,

I'm seeking information on the potential of SMS (Short Message System)
gaining substantial market share and preference by mobile users around
the world.

SMS is mostly popular on GSM networks in Europe and Asia and is
starting to catch on in the US.

I would imagine that the following elements would be of value, along
with any you think is relevant:

1. Estimated market size by region and language.

2a. A reasonably recent reference of the number of GSM users by
Country segmented by the Americas, Europe, the middle east, Africa and
Asia.

2b. A compilation of the GSM and the SMS situation in China and its
growth.

3. SMS usage by age group and by intended use, meaning business,
entertainment and so fourth.

4. Services and content expected to be popular in the near future.

5. A bit of probing into the philosophy of how people think of their
mobile phones in terms of messaging and receiving/exchanging content
with others, individuals and corporate service providers.

6. How open/closed are global markets to International competitors in
the field of content and services via SMS.

7. Where is WAP heading with SMS being where it is and how it seems to
be moving in the future.

/Lizardnation

Hi! Thanks for this very interesting question.

SMS or Short Messaging System or what is known popularly in most
countries, as text messaging is really one of the so-called killer
Apps in the mobile phone industry in Europe and in Asia. The worldwide
market situation of SMS is funny since it is one area in information
technology wherein the US lags behind even among third world
countries. I will try to answer your questions point by point.

1.  
The Gartner Group estimates that 12 billion SMS messages are sent
worldwide in a variety of medium either by PCs, PDAs and most
popularly via mobile or cell phones.

The following links point out this study and also a breakdown of SMS
messages sent in different regions of the world.
To answer number 1 of your question EMC provides data of cellular cell
phone subscribers in the different regions. The European and Asian
regions dominate this filed significantly.

EMC's World Cellular Subscriber Forecasts 30/10/2001
http://www.emc-database.com/website.nsf/index/pr011030#this-page
 
The GSM industry situation is summarized here. 
GSM continues to be the leading cellular technology                   
  http://www.emc-database.com/website.nsf/index/pr010319#this-page

GSM Usage is expected to soar 
http://www.emc-database.com/website.nsf/index/pr000714#this-page 

The following are all about GSM statistics and graphs:
 http://www.gsmworld.com/news/statistics/index.shtml 

Sales of SMS countries in different parts of the world are presented
in the following links so that you could have a good idea

SMS Continues to Take Messaging World by Storm By Michael Pastore
http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/wireless/article/0,1323,10094_733811,00.html

Europe's SMS Love Affair Set to Continue Through 2004 
http://www1.frost.com/prod/corpnews.nsf/0/C9942B068BEECB6580256B7A004E9154

Data about SMS messages sent according to GSM users in the UK.        
   http://www.mda-mobiledata.org/resource/releases/pr17012000.asp

This article provides us with the situation of worldwide SMS
investments.

WORLD MOBILE OPERATORS RISK PUTTING US$69 BILLION MESSAGING MARKET AT
RISK
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2001/11/prweb29760.php  
Cellular2002: A Study of the Worldwide Cellular Telephone Market
http://www.alexanderresources.com/reports/Report2/Summary.htm 

--------
2a. Subscribers of SMS countries in different parts of the world are
presented in the following links so that you could have a good idea.
The following data shows telecom companies, which have 2 million or so
subscribers.

Asia (http://www.cellular.co.za/stats/stats-asia.htm) 
Europe (http://www.cellular.co.za/stats/stats-europe-over-2million.htm)
Africa (http://www.cellular.co.za/stats/stats-africa.htm) 
South Africa (http://www.cellular.co.za/stats/statistics_south_africa.htm)
North America (http://www.cellular.co.za/stats/statistics_north_america_gsm.htm)
South America (1.6 million subscribers) Mentioned at the end of this
article (http://www.gsmworld.com/about/structure/s_america.shtml)

------------
2b.
Due to its population size China should have been the leading Asian
country in terms o SMS messaging. It still lags behind such countries
as the Philippines (billed as the text capital of the world),
Indonesia and Malaysia. But such services were only introduced to
Chine in 2000 and the market may be changing more quickly than
expected. The following are the links about China’s mobile phone
messaging situation:

Foreign SMS-C vendors battle for slice of Chinese messaging market
http://www.emc-database.com/website.nsf/index/pr011126#this-page 
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020325/1/2myga.html 
http://www.inq7.net/brk/2002/mar/25/brkbus_2-1.htm 

-----------------
3. For the market segments here is what I find:
Instant messaging becoming a hit in Asian market--analysts
http://archive.inq7.net/archive/2001-p/inf/2001/aug/16/inf_3-1-p.htm 

It does not just smell like teen spirit anymore according to this
article, businesses are finding ways to use SMS at the workplace
Text messaging comes of age
By Kate Pritchard  
http://www.vnunet.com/Features/1126659 

--------------------
4. It is almost unanimous that the next wave of killer Apps and
services should be on 3G phones. The following links describe this
idea.

Test run for future phones (from BBC news)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1705000/1705593.stm 

About GSM, the technology is evolving and this website is catered to
such interest. It lists different articles on how GSM could be tied up
with emerging mobile phone technologies.
http://www.gsmworld.com/technology/index.shtml 

-----------------
5. The following are information regarding how people treat their
mobile phones and why they use it for SMS.

The Philippines' Other Revolution. (Think Wireless.) By Paul Kaihla
http://www.business2.com/articles/web/0,1653,11659,FF.html 

Wedding rings: Mobile is the food of love
http://www.guardian.co.uk/efinance/article/0,2763,365094,00.html 

Wireless Teens: Opportunities and Trends
http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:YyFnUraIznYC:www.mobilethink.dk/downloads/WireLessTeens.pdf+%22text+messaging%22+user+age+group&hl=en
http://www.mobilethink.dk/downloads/WireLessTeens.pdf (PDF file
version)
 
-----------------
6. This question provides for issues regarding penetration to SMS
services. The US is one country which has surprisingly has a problem.
The problem of SM in the US market are mentioned here:              
http://guide.darwinmag.com/technology/communications/messaging/

Another issue is a country’s cultures and laws:

Text messaging tests China's freedom
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-851788.html?tag=cd_mh 

CELLULAR MOBILE PRICING STRUCTURES AND TRENDS
http://www1.oecd.org/dsti/sti/it/cm/prod/e_99-11.htm 

------------------
7. WAP is not as popular as SMS and people give different reasons and
perspectives. The following articles sum it up and also some more data
about SMS messaging markets can be found within the articles.

http://archive.inq7.net/archive/2001-p/inf/2001/jul/11/inf_1-1-p.htm 
http://www.pyramidresearch.com/static_content/feature_articles/001220_feature.asp
http://www.mobileinfo.com/WAP/future_outlook.htm 
http://www.business2.com/articles/web/0,1653,16474,FF.html 
http://www.thinkmobile.com/Phones/Cell/Article/00/01/16/ 

Gates casts doubt on WAP future
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/09/12/000912hngateswap.xml?0912t

Search terms used:
SMS “text messaging” market data service issues WAP future services 

Hope this would be of help to your research. Thanks again for visiting
us at Google Answers and I am very happy to be of service to you once
again.

Regards,
Easterangel-ga

Thanks Easterangel-ag for a job very well done.  As was noticed and is
true, the questions listed deserved more than the amount offered. :-)

Dear lizardnation,

While I would consider $100 a generous offer normally, this is - in my
humble opinion - rather a $1000-question, if not more. I do not claim
that your question can not be answered; but I think collecting and
combining such an extensive amount of data or even searching relevant
sources would need time and efforts worth far more than $100. I might
be completely wrong (I'm only human), but I feel obliged to prepare
you for not getting the information you desire, just to prevent
possible dissapointment. But as I said, I might be wrong and one of
our search-wizards will yet find exactly the answers you need.

Anyway, thank you very much for your interesting questions!
Regards,
Scriptor

Hello Scriptor,

I understand that my questions are rather overkill if satisfied for
the amount offered, though I have the need for the above information
and getting closer to it with answers worth the $100 is what I
anticipate. :-)

I have rated close answers to what I asked for at five stars at some
instances because the effort/answer was worth my money and was
probably lacking propper representation.

It is said that in majority there's no absolute right or wrong, though
mixtures of varying ratios... I like to go with that as I feel its the
fair level of expectation for mere humans. ;-)

/Lizardnation