Asian mobility spending to rise
Countries in the Asia-Pacific region are showing different trends related to enterprise mobility, but that won't stop the regional market from experiencing a growth spurt over the next half decade, a study from research firm IDC predicts.
According to the study, the enterprise mobility market in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan (APEJ), will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.5 percent to hit US$33.5 billion by 2010. The market is estimated to be US$23.3 billion in 2006.
The biggest driver for this growth will come from an increase in spending by enterprises on communications services and mobile hardware, said IDC analyst Shalini Verma in a press release on Monday.
Based on IDC's findings, hardware expenditure--consisting mostly of notebooks and mobile devices--currently forms the second largest component of the total enterprise mobility market in the Asia-Pacific, in which Australia, China, India and Korea lead in terms of spending.
The total hardware spending related to enterprise mobility in APEJ totaled US$9.8 billion in 2006 and, at a CAGR of 9.8 percent during the forecast period, is expected to reach US$14.3 billion in 2010.
"Communication services growth is fueled by a healthy growth of mobile business users in emerging markets and rising business ARPU in markets like Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore," explains Verma. ARPU refers to the average revenue per user.
"The high growth rate forecasted for mobility software and WLAN hardware expenditure [also] point to a growing enterprise readiness to adopt mobility in the region."
But with Asia-Pacific's diverse demographics, countries in the region are exhibiting different trends related to enterprise mobility.
For example, in Australia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, broad adoption of enterprise mobility applications seems likely due to the increasing ubiquity of wireless LAN and 3G networks.
In emerging markets like India and China, however, IDC expects enterprise mobility usage to be largely limited to business voice and short message service (SMS), though horizontal applications such as mobile e-mail will see rapid uptake during the forecast period.