ABI Research forecasts that the number of mobile cloud computing subscribers worldwide will grow rapidly over the next five years, rising from 42.8 million subscribers in 2008 or about 1.1% of all mobile subscribers to some 998 million in 2014 or nearly 19%.
According to ABI Research senior analyst Mark Beccue, subscriber numbers will be driven by location-enabled services, particularly navigation and map applications, with 60% of the mobile cloud application subscribers worldwide using an application enabled by location.
“By 2014, mobile cloud computing will become the leading mobile application development and deployment strategy, displacing today’s native and downloadable mobile applications,” Beccue said.