A research study conducted by LogicaCMG and STL amongst delegates at this year's Telco 2.0 and IMS Services Forum in London has revealed that the future success of mobile messaging services is dependant upon much closer interaction between mobile operators and leading Internet players. The research, across 70 senior figures from the mobile industry, shows that in future successful mobile messaging will require operators and Internet companies to work together to deliver successful integrated services which take advantage of each industry's respective strengths.

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of those questioned said they believed that interoperability with internet instant messaging domains, such as Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, GoogleTalk and AOL Instant Messenger, was the most important factor for success of mobile IM. In addition 28% believe that interoperability with SMS and MMS is crucial to the successful introduction of mobile IM, and only 7.5% believe low-price to be the key. Delegates stressed that this integration needs to go beyond user experience and even include revenue share of the services offered.

Interestingly, 50% of the audience felt that enhancing SMS with presence and conversational chat features will be the most effective way to improve profitability of today's messaging services, enabling operators to introduce differentiated bundled tariffs and better price segmentation.

Considering the future direction of the mobile operators, a resounding 62% of delegates stated that the competitive edge of tomorrow's operator would lie in providing enhanced access for the end-user, offering anywhere-access to internet services. This should be topped with a platform for security, identity management and payments facilities on-top-of traditional communications services. A further 27% of those asked stated tomorrow's competitive edge rests with offering increased operator-defined person-to-person communications and person-to-application access, with only 7% suggesting that operators will ultimately move away from pure communication offerings and instead focus on becoming content distributors.

When asked about new revenue sources for operators, 66% of all respondents believed that service plans that include discounted messaging services in return for advertising would be effective, half of them being convinced that it will seriously increase profitability.
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