Providers hoped that MMS would tap into existing demand for text messaging by adding multimedia services for which subscribers would pay a premium. Whilst MMS has started to generate meaningful revenues for some carriers, market prospects for the current range of multimedia products remain limited, with volumes only predicted to grow from 8.3 billion worldwide in 2005 to 47.4 billion in 2010. Gartner largely attributes this disappointing lack of adoption to interoperability, usability and pricing issues.

Mobile IM combines the ubiquitous availability of SMS with presence (that is the ability to know whether the other correspondent is present or not) and has long been viewed as a highly attractive opportunity in the consumer wireless market. For users, growth has been hindered by the complexities of service set-up, device configuration, usability and (not least) integration with existing online IM user IDs.

Some operators have decided to host existing IM clients on their networks, others have opted to develop proprietary mobile IM services and to try to build user communities that will drive usage and traffic. However, these are mainly in developing markets, where PC penetration and Internet use are fairly low.