A new report from ABI Research says that strong growth in SMS in the Americas, increased mobile e-mail adoption in developed regions, more wireless subscribers in Asia-Pac and the influx of mobile social networking all over the place will all combine to drive the overall mobile messaging market to $212 billion by 2013.

Despite all the different regional growth factors, ABI found one common thread: messaging services are a fast, cheap and easy way to communicate.

As for what's next in mobile messaging, it's all about innovation, says ABI principal analyst Dan Shey. "Innovation in messaging input, including touchscreens, voice-to-text and advanced keyboard designs, makes initiating a mobile message very easy." But it's the combination of these input options with "greater ease of communicating across mobile and fixed platforms regardless of messaging service" that will drive adoption in both the consumer and business worlds, says Shey.