A recent market report indicates that the rich communications services market is poised to continue to grow through the year 2019. Despite challenges from over-the-top (OTT) service providers, analytics predict that it will reach a global worth of $5,749.6 million in five years -- up from $596.3 million in 2013 -- and that major players in the market will continue to be the driving force behind its success.
The latest report from MarketsandMarkets, "Rich Communications Services Market by MNO Services (Chat, Content Sharing, VoIP, IP Video Call, File Transfer, Social Presence Sharing), & Infrastructure Service Providers by Deployment (Cloud, On-Premise) - Worldwide Forecasts and Analysis (2014 - 2019)," provides analysis of the RCS market that includes its current factors and future trends, and shows that mobile operators are banking on worldwide adoption of high-speed broadband. However, as the world becomes more connected, it also becomes easier for startups in the OTT market to provide services similar to what traditional RCS providers have offered for many years. This evolving competition has resulted in the consolidation of RCS services within prominent entities that are presently doing their large part to keep OTT vendors from undermining their own services.
The MarketsandMarkets report specifically mentions the larger players as Acision, Alcatel-Lucent, Comverse, Ericsson, Genband, Huawei, Interop Technologies, Mavenir Systems, Nokia (News - Alert) Solutions and Networks, and SAP, and it is the likes of those leviathans that are finding ways to capitalize on social networks, mobile carrier collaboration, and device interoperability to keep customers happy and desiring of RCS products. The report also shows that the cloud is becoming a useful tool for RCS providers because they can use the universal nature of cloud access to more easily deliver products to customers.
When customers want to access services from anywhere, cloud is becoming the preferred way to give it to them. For many RCS services, mobile users can use their phones and tablets in any location with an Internet connection to make voice and video calls, complete text messages, and send and receive files. RCS can now take advantage of the cloud and provide the aforementioned services within a single portal that is both aesthetically pleasing and simple to use. The word "rich" in the title suggests an immersive experience for end users, and carriers are becoming increasingly able to leverage the cloud to make experiences more powerful than ever.
Edited by Alisen Downey