The volume of email is predicted to increase twofold in the next few years, according to a new study from IDC.
Worldwide Email Usage Forecast, 2002-2006: Know What’s Coming Your Way estimates that the number of emails sent will increase from 31 billion this year to more than 60 billion in 2006. Person-to-person emails will account for approximately half of this total with automated mailings such as newsletters and marketing messages making up the remainder.
Implications in the workplace This raises issues for for all online companies as the anticipated increase in spam and non-personal emailing is bound to have an adverse effect on productivity as employees digest and delete scores of messages.
“Like water flowing out of a hose, email has the potential to fill our inboxes and workdays, overwhelming our abilities to navigate throught the growing currents of content,” said Mark Levitt, vice president of IDC’s Collaborative Computing programme and co-author of the report.
“To ensure that email continues to be a valuable business and personal communications tool, suppliers and customers will need to find new ways to provide near-real-time access through desktop, mobile, and wireless devices to important and time-sensitive email content and alerts for more effective collaboration.”
Web-based services such as Hotmail will remain the most popular means for checking email. However, the vast amount of traffic will present problems for both ISPs and email providers who are already under increasing pressure to combat spam and maintain standards of service. The financial burden could well be passed on to the customer.
