Messaging will remain the driver behind mobile data revenues for years to come, yielding an anticipated $224 billion by 2013—60 percent of combined non-voice revenues—according to a new forecast by market analysis firm Portio Research. Portio says messaging traffic volume and revenues will remain a cash cow for operators even in the face of continued economic turmoil—while media-rich MMS, enterprise-based mobile email and youth-conscious mobile IM will all generate carrier income, SMS will continue to lead due to its low cost, relative ease of use and interoperability across all networks. Portio notes that in the U.S., monthly SMS use per subscriber is now almost double the European average, and in the Philippines, users now send more than 750 messages each month.

The Portio report calls mobile IM the “rising star in the mobile messaging constellation,“ predicting worldwide usage totals will grow from 111 million subscribers in 2008 (representing about $2.5 billion in revenues) to 867 million subscribers by the close of 2013 ($12.4 billion) despite lingering interoperability concerns. Also growing: MMS, especially in regions like the U.S. and China. Portio anticipates worldwide MMS traffic will exceed 75 billion messages in 2008, with future growth promising thanks to the flood of affordable, camera-equipped handsets entering the Asian market. Japan remains the sole market where consumer mobile email use now tops SMS, although email remains the dominant form of enterprise communication—still, Portio believes mobile email users worldwide will quadruple from roughly a quarter of a billion users in 2008 to over a billion users by the end of 2013.