In 2008, almost at par, SMS contribution to revenue was 10.3 percent, whilst mobile multimedia services amounted to 10.1 percent, said IDC, predicting that SMS contribution will plateau at 10 percent for the next few years, while mobile multimedia services will continue to ride on growth trajectory.

Early drivers of growth in mobile multimedia content have been ringtones and wallpaper downloads, particular with the younger demographics, said IDC "Today, the emergence of handsets featuring larger screens and even touch-screen interfaces has pushed the uptake of mobile multimedia services to a new level," said Alex Chau, senior research manager for IDC's Asia/Pacific Mobile & Wireless Technologies/Services Research. "This has spurred content and application developers to develop tens of thousands of applications to satisfy this new demand amongst mobile users."