SMS continues its phenomenal growth. Gartner is out with a new report that forecasts 2.3 trillion mobile messages will be sent worldwide in 2008, a 19.6% increase from the 2007 total of 1.9 trillion messages.

The analyst report also says SMS revenue across major markets will grow 15.7% in 2008 to $60.2 billion, up from $52 billion in 2007. Gartner notes, however, that operator margins on messaging are getting thinner because of market saturation and competition.

"In many markets, there has been strong pressure on operator margins for text messaging services and this has been driven by often intense competition between carriers," says Gartner Analyst Nick Ingelbrecht. "At the same time, consumers have grown accustomed to large or unlimited bundles of inclusive SMS as part of their basic cellular service package. Carriers should plan for a future of much reduced margins on messaging services. They should develop messaging platforms, services portfolios and pricing plans that support the broader objectives of customer acquisition and retention, rather than short-term margin enhancements."

Asia/Pacific and Japan are the biggest consumers of mobile messaging with an estimated 1.5 trillion messages sent in 2007, Gartner says, and that's expect to increase to 1.7 trillion in 2008. Gartner also estimated there were 189 billion mobile messages sent in 2007 in North America, with a forecast to reach 301 billion in 2008.

"The market is being driven by increased penetration of users, more frequent usage of peer-to-peer messaging, and unlimited and bucketed messaging plans," says Tole Hart, research director at Gartner. "There has also been some uptake of mobile e-mail via POP3 mailboxes and mobile IM service, but it's very small compared with the uptake of SMS."