A recent study by Informa Telecoms and Media suggested that operators were missing out on around £2.5billion revenue a year from Premium SMS. Yet both the operators and business fail to see the potential of SMS as a revenue generating tool.
The advantage of SMS from a consumer's point of view is the usability - it's simple and everyone has it - and the low cost.
However, both operators and businesses have failed to see the potential in the simplicity of SMS. Their focus has been on MMS, WAP and now mobile WiFi.
The problem for the mobile user with these technologies is both usability and cost. I have blogged previously about these.
Obvious areas of commerce that can benefit both business and consumer are areas such as ticketing, auctions and information services. However businesses should consider taking this a stage further and incorporate SMS as a purchasing tool for their customers. With SMS the MSISDN can identify the user quickly and simply and whilst additional security measures can be taken, SMS can offer mobile users a fast simple and secure payment process. As the Premium SMS has severe limitations this may need to be linked to a credit card, but if done in a usable yet secure way the potential for businesses is massive.
There is more comment on this subject here: http://www.160characters.org/news.php?action=view&nid=2474
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