Market leader Nokia, relative newcomer Apple and Research in Motion, the company behind the venerable BlackBerry, are the first handset vendors to recognize the importance of data services as a key revenue stream, says to a new report from Strategy Analytics.

According to a Telecoms.com post on the report, although revenue from their various service strategies are still modest, they are growing. These include music from Apple, push e-mail and other business apps from RIM and GPS navigation and its Ovi platform from Nokia.

Nokia, for example, will see as much as 5% of its revenue coming from its value-added services by 2012, up from less than 1% in 2007, Strategy Analytics estimates.