Beyond Wireless E-mail

According to IDC, the Massachusetts-based research firm, the market for mobile enterprise data applications will almost triple from $1.2 billion in 2005 to $3.5 billion in 2010. Wireless e-mail is currently the most dominant mobile application, however, IDC and others researchers forecast the majority of growth for mobile enterprise data applications will come from those that are not e-mail oriented.

Wireless e-mail began to make a real marketplace impact in the late 90's. Its early demand was largely driven by corporate executives and key managers that had a real need for e-mail and basic information mobility. Research In Motion was able to establish a market leadership position in wireless e-mail with its BlackBerry due to its behind the firewall, push-based solution and security features. The wireless e-mail market was aided by the fact that these early solutions were relatively easy to deploy and could be adequately managed by existing IT staff.

The mobile revolution

We have obviously witnessed a remarkable evolution since the late 1990's with respect to mobile devices. E-mail only devices like the RIM BlackBerry 950 evolved into the current BlackBerry models that handle both voice and data. Palm products began as Personal Digital Assistants and have evolved into the current Treo models which, like the BlackBerry, also handle both voice and data.

The price for wireless devices such as the Palm Treo and RIM BlackBerry has also trended down to the point where these phones are now within the reach of more than just executives and key corporate managers. At the same time, smartphones have also become much more powerful—the processors are faster and the storage capacity is larger. The current Palm Treo 750, for example, boasts a 300 MHz processor, 64 MB of RAM, and external memory expansion capability of 2 GB.

Additionally, carrier networks are rapidly improving to provide enhanced data speed capabilities that will offer more robust solutions to the mobile wireless ecosystem. These enhanced data speeds will help increase the adoption rates of existing and future wireless applications. These newer, 3G wireless data technologies—UMTS and its HSDPA extension for GSM networks and EV-DO for CDMA networks—allow for much faster transfer speeds, over 300 Kbps for UMTS and 500 to 800 Kbps for EV-DO and HSDPA.

To take advantage of the lower cost and greater power of smartphones and to help fuel the growth of devices and mobile applications, U.S. carriers, device makers, and mobile operating system providers all encouraged third-party mobile application development. The investment that these stakeholders have made has been significant, and as a result they each possess robust catalogues of applications that work with their respective device, operating system, or carrier network. Sprint alone currently has a mobile data application catalog that consists of over 70 partners and over 130 individual applications.

Application availability driving development

To be sure, consumer mobile applications are driving the development of devices, operating systems, and carrier networks at least as much as business applications are. TV and video, gaming, music, social communities, and GPS services aimed at the consumer are rapidly shaping the wireless application ecosystem. But in my opinion the most exciting and revolutionary developments from a mobile application standpoint are happening in the business-to-business sector.

The range of mobile applications that are available to both small businesses and enterprises is both wide and deep; from off-the-shelf solutions to highly customized solutions tailored to specific customers. Applications have been developed and are available for nearly every vertical market with transportation, retail, time and inventory, and healthcare being the markets that have the most applications available to them.