A recently released market research report predicts that the rich communications services market will be worth approximately $5.8 billion by 2019.
The RCS industry was created in 2007 by industry players under the title Groupe Speciale Mobile Association that wanted to see an expansion of the capability of voicemail, messaging, and voice/video calling services within the mobile spectrum. The latest report from MarketsandMarkets predicts that RCS will see substantial growth from $596.3 million in 2013 to $5.8 billion in 2019 and that a handful of large enterprises will primarily drive that revenue.
The report notes Acision, Alcatel-Lucent, Comverse, Ericsson, Genband, Huawei, Interop Technologies, Mavenir Systems, Nokia (News - Alert) Solutions and Networks, and SAP as the key players, and furthermore it notes that "the competition from these big players further makes it difficult for small vendors to enter the RCS market."
ABI Research (News - Alert) expressed this sentiment back in October with its analysis of how operators are using RCS to overcome challenges from players in the over-the-top content market that may be more open to smaller organizations. Vendors such as those listed above -- ABI specifically notes Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert), Huawei, and Nokia Solutions and Networks -- can provide operators with RCS services to create a competitive advantage in the market. As long as the services are of a high quality, it appears that customers will continue to use such services because they come from the same source as their primary mobile operators.
MarketsandMarkets says vendors can make use of the cloud to provide services that are easier for enterprise customers and consumers to use. For businesses, this can mean better interoperability across networks, integrated voice and video services with their mobile plans, and the ability to instantly communicate with anyone who has a handset that supports the RCS technology. RCS is also reportedly able to provide users with personalized experiences in the business and consumer spaces by allowing them to pick and choose which services they prefer and enhancing those services to meet users' needs.
Edited by Alisen Downey