Despite predictions to the contrary, SMS revenues have continued to grow year-on-year and are providing mobile network operators with their most significant messaging revenue earnings. This, Cellular News reports, was the overwhelming consensus at Global Messaging 2007 in Monte Carlo. The proof is in the numbers: Informa pegs global messaging revenues at $80 billion; a whopping $60 billion comes from SMS. (Mobile messaging is a broad term – it’s not clear how it is defined, but here it includes MMS, mobile email, MIM or mobile instant messaging and SMS.)

The article includes a summary of current global predictions for the growth of SMS messaging volumes by 2010. They range from 2.316 trillion by Gartner, to 2.827 trillion by Ovum, and 3.173 trillion by Portio Research. These figures are all up from 1.056 trillion SMS’s reported for 2005 by Portio Research.

So, why does SMS set new records while other data services take-up is stuck in the doldrums? No surprises here. Ovum’s John Delaney suggests it all lead backs to factors such as usability and simplicity. In a nutshell, everyone uses SMS because every one can. Other services should be so simple - and until they are data services usage will continue to disappoint.