The growing number of mobile workers and increasing focus on improving operational efficiency and customer experience is fuelling growth of mobile enterprise applications and services in Asia-Pacific, research firm Frost &Sullivan said.
Mobile operators are also increasingly turning to mobile office applications in an attempt to improve ARPU amid stagnating subscriber numbers and decline in voice revenues, the research firm, in a news analysis, also said.
The analysis also reveals that the revenues in the Asia Pacific mobile enterprise market, covering 12 major Asia-Pacific countries excluding Japan, totaled $20.68 billion in 2006 and is forecasted to be worth $35.51 billion by end-2011.
The research firm also said the mobile enterprise market includes all mobile revenues from the enterprise segment which covers corporate voice services, mobile office, and other applications such as field force automation, CRM and ERP.
Mobile office applications, especially mobile email applications, are showing strong growth, highlighting the importance of corporate sector customers. Voice however remains the main revenue generator, the firm said.
Most mobile operators are likely to concentrate on the mobilization of vertical industry applications and business processes in the future.
Whilst the mobile enterprise segment is a small revenue contributor (at under 20%) to the regional mobile market, certain countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Singapore have relatively mature mobile enterprise sectors, the research firm further said.