In a new report, Informa Telecoms & Media has forecast that mobile enterprise revenues are to reach $92.6bn with over 479 million subscribers by 2014, making it a strong growth area for vendors, operators and content providers.
According to Informa's Mobile Enterprise report (third edition), mobile enterprise is forecast to generate 24% of total mobile data service revenues by 2014, representing a potentially strong revenue generation opportunity for key players. Traditionally, cellular operators have tried but failed to capture this market and this report highlights the importance of developing strategies to maximise these new revenue streams, says Informa.
"One of the key drivers of this growth, is cellular operator interest in new service segments including the SME and Soho sector, the opportunities created by mobile convergence, growth in end user outsourcing and software as services (SaaS). These factors will be magnified in the short term by the impact of the global economic downturn," states Paul Merry, Senior Analyst and lead author of the report.
Mobile enterprise is also seen as a major opportunity for new entrant players from the established enterprise IT sector, Merry adds. These players are a major challenge to cellular operators having pre-existing relationships with larger corporations and access to their IT departments; they also have substantial expertise in the challenging area of enterprise service development and integration. "Integration is a major headache for enterprise service providers", Merry states, "with larger companies invariably having pre-existing systems that require incorporation".
According to Informa, the other major party involved in mobile enterprise are device manufacturers, who have identified enterprise services as a valuable service sector which they can develop to drive uptake of smartphone devices. Players in this sphere include RIM, who through their Blackberry enterprise server (BES) and recently launched App World store, provides the service platform and the services themselves to potential enterprise users.