Email Usage To Exceed 60 Billion by 2006.

Email volume will continue to explode as person-to-person emails are joined by rapidly-growing numbers of spam and email alerts and notifications, according to IDC. In 2006, the total number of email messages sent daily is expected to exceed 60 billion worldwide, up from 31 billion in 2002, and slightly more than half of these messages will be person-to-person emails.

“Like water flowing out of a hose, email has the potential to fill our inboxes and workdays, overwhelming our abilities to navigate through the growing currents of content,” said Mark Levitt, vice president of IDC’s Collaborative Computing program. “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.”

According to IDC, email users will demand greater access to message filtering technology to quickly distinguish between high and low priority messages and to delete spam. Additionally, Web browsers will remain the primary access method for all emailboxes worldwide through 2006.