An estimated 936 billion SMS messages were sent in 2005, and this number may reach 2.3 trillion by 2010, research firm Gartner predicts. "Nobody could have could have predicted the phenomenal success of SMS and the race is on to find its successor," said Gartner analyst Nick Ingelbrecht. "Without a doubt new services are needed, but a clear leader has yet to emerge from the messaging services currently being deployed such as mobile IM [instant messaging], video messaging, mobile e-mail and unified and integrated messaging."