21m Europeans Wireless Email 2008

Europe UK : Mobile email, which typically also includes mobile access to calendars and contact information, will be the key driver of growth in mobile data services for businesses over the next five years, according to Analysys.

In its new report, Mobile Data Solutions for Businesses: maximising revenue and take-up, Analysys Research predicts that around 40% of people with a business mobile phone (21 million Europeans) will use mobile email in 2008, compared to less than 1% today. Over the same period, the annual mobile service revenue generated by email will increase from EUR49 million in 2003 to EUR2.9 billion in 2008.

"Businesses have been slow to start using mobile networks for services other than voice," says Katrina Bond, lead author of the report, "but mobile email is set to lead the way as solutions to enable this valuable extension to existing person-to-person communications become more widespread."

The report outlines the variety of mobile email solutions being offered, from Microsoft's decision to include mobility functions in Exchange Server 2003, to Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices, to the NokiaOne hosted solution, which caters for a broad range of existing phones and PDAs. However, it emphasises that with email's applicability to a broad range of companies with different needs, no one type of solution is likely to dominate.

Mobile access to company intranets and to specialist applications such as sales-force automation (SFA) are also identified by the report as key areas for growth. "Increasing revenue will come from general Web access over mobile networks," adds Bond. "However, mobile Web access alone will not be enough to convince businesses to start using mobile data services."

Analysys Research expects Western European businesses to be spending EUR8.1 billion across all mobile data services by 2008, up from EUR1.8 billion in 2003, and for small and medium-sized businesses to account for 78% of that spend.

Mobile Data Solutions for Businesses: maximising take-up and revenue details the strategic implications of this potential market growth for mobile operators, systems integrators, value-added resellers, software and application developers, IT vendors and device manufacturers. The report covers Western Europe, with separate forecasts for France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK.