It will be the users that are going to reap the main benefits from the widespread reshuffling going on in the electronic messaging sector, while in the long term, the most successful suppliers will be those that can offer not just one messaging service, but the whole range. These are the findings of the new report from BIS Mackintosh, a part of its Electronic Messaging Information Service analysis programme, which argues that the most significant events in the industry have included AT&T’s entry into the international market through its subsidiaries offering specialised services in national markets. The purchase of Tymnet by British Telecommmunications from McDonnell-Douglas and the subsequent fusion of Tymnet with Dialcom has led, according to the report, to British Telecom already having taken over from Western Union as the US market leader in electronic mail. The acquisition by MCI of most of Infonet’s business is also cited as having particular importance. The report goes on to suggest that users will benefit from these re-organisations by having a greater choice of services, because the most successful suppliers will be those that offer a complete range of service and use X400-based electronic messaging as a base on which to build a high value service such as electronic data interchange; the rest may see themselves confined to just one market, and ejected from the markets with most potential. BIS Mackintosh, a subsidiary of Nynex Corp, puts the current value of the electronic data interchange market at $340m in the US, with the only other really significant market being the UK, worth an estimated $48.5m. By 1994, these markets will have expanded to $1,840m and $175m respectively, with Canada, Germany and France also offering strong potential.
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