ForgetMeNot’s subsidiary ForgetMeNot Africa are very proud to announce that their eTXT service has been nominated for theInnovation in Messaging award, at the upcoming Global Messaging Awards 2010, in London.

Chief Operating Officer Jeremy George speaking from West Africa Com in Dakar, Senegal said:

“We are delighted the eTXT service which enables emails and chat messages to be sent and received seamlessly as an SMS has been recognised by the mobile industry as a major innovation in messaging”

He added, “ eTXT has already been deployed in Africa and is changing the way people communicate.Our technology transforms low grade mobile phones into stepping stones across the global digital divide, which ultimately changes peoples lives in Africa”

The awards take place on the 22nd of June 2010 in London.

By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide. According to Gartner’s PC installed base forecast, the total number of PCs in use will reach 1.78 billion units in 2013. By 2013, the combined installed base of smartphones and browser-equipped enhanced phones will exceed 1.82 billion units and will be greater than the installed base for PCs thereafter.

Mobile Web users are typically prepared to make fewer clicks on a website than users accessing sites from a PC. Although a growing number of websites and Web-based applications offer support for small-form-factor mobile devices, many still do not. Websites not optimized for the smaller-screen formats will become a market barrier for their owners — much content and many sites will need to be reformatted/rebuilt.

Mobile markets are maturing and many operators are setting themselves apart from their competitors by offering Value Added Services (VAS). In most instances subscribers will need to send a SMS message in order to receive or download the item, whether it is a ring-tone, wall-paper or email (in the case of ForgetMeNot Africa’s Message Optimiser) leading to increased network usage.

So it’s no surprise that according to a report by Strand Consulting, the primary source of operators VAS revenue is derived from SMS traffic, with only a small amount coming from data services.

However, increased network traffic is only one benefit of offering VAS. Smart operators realise that VAS also have an important role to play in building customer loyalty and reducing churn. By offering customers value added services which are relevant and useful to their subscriber base operators can build long-term loyalty and minimise the loss of revenue to churn.