Market Momentum: Enterprise Mobility Year In Review

An analysis of publicly available enterprise mobility announcements between mid-2008 through mid-2009 highlight opportunities for vendors in the mobility ecosystem, including device manufacturers, network operators, application developers, systems integrators, and mobile middleware vendors. Four key trends are evident: 1) Smartphone announcements from mobile device vendors lead the way; 2) an abundance of mobile application announcements target employee roles; 3) there are strategic initiatives to establish virtual mobile application stores and expand developer communities; and 4) there is emerging focus on machine-to-machine (M2M) opportunities. In the coming year, we expect continued consolidation in the enterprise mobility ecosystem, particularly from mobile application vendors. Vendor strategists must modulate the rate of these announcements and incorporate return on investment (ROI) and real customer examples to capture the attention of potential customers.