SMS is still king for mobile data revenue

Portio Research says text messaging will still be the leading revenue-generator from mobile data for several years. Volume and revenue are both expected to continue growing through the current economic downturn, with the whole mobile messaging industry - currently worth $130 billion - predicted to be worth $224 billion by 2013. The company also says that the number of mobile email users worldwide will quadruple from approximately a quarter of a billion users in 2008 to over a billion users by the end of 2013 - and mobile instant messaging users will increase from 111 million users worldwide in 2008 to 867 million users by the end of 2013. [Press release]

4 billion worldwide mobile users this year

Informa Telecoms & Media has calculated there will be 4 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide by the end of this year. However, it says the five billionth subscription won't be connected until the end of 2011. The International Telecommunications Union agrees with the 4 billion figure... and this ties in with figures from Portio Research, who say 5.8 billion people - 80% of the world's population - will be using mobiles by the end of 2013. [Sources: Telecoms.com; ITU press release; Portio press release]