2.3 trillion text messages to be sent in 2008?

Tim over at CNET has some good stats on the continued growth of SMS (courtesy of Gartner). Worth a look:

A recent Garner study estimates 189 billion mobile messages will be sent by US mobile phone subscribers in 2007 and forecasts 301 billion in 2008, both of which is still only a small fraction of the 2.3 trillion messages to be sent across major markets worldwide in 2008 (a 19.6 percent increase from the 2007 total of 1.9 trillion messages).

Asia is the biggest mobile messaging market worldwide. China is well ahead in the lead with approximately 560 billion SMS, followed by the Philippines’ 430 billion, and Japan’s 190 billion.