Worldwide, SMS has emerged as the cheapest, quickest, easiest form of peer-to-peer mobile communication ever known and is still growing in all regions. MMS is not a failure, in fact far from it. Forecasts suggest MMS will also generate revenues of $50bn by 2010.

The report suggests, "the industry must concentrate on increasing the use of Premium MMS as a marketing tool and a distribution channel while promoting growth of cheap pier to pier picture messaging. When MMS becomes cheap, simple and compelling, traffic will grow and revenue will follow."

Other messaging technologies including mobile e-mail, and mobile instant messaging, the report suggests, will continue to gain ground. However with a large proportion of global mobile subscriber growth in the next 5 or 6 years being in low-income per-capita emerging markets, and fixed-mobile substitution back on the corporate agenda in the mature mobile markets, there seems to be plenty of life still in voice, and in SMS. "No other non-verbal form of communication in the world is used by so many individuals and is experiencing such a rapid expansion of its user base," the report claims.