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Mobile Enterprise Apps: Viva La Difference!

Rodney Dangerfield still gets no respect -- that's no longer true for the wireless enterprise subscriber. Why? ABI Research survey results have confirmed that North American business customers spend 23 percent more on mobile services than consumers do.

But until now, mobile productivity application development has lagged behind mobile entertainment services development, limiting the opportunities for serving the business customer.

That is now starting to change and by 2012 -- driven by mobile productivity applications -- data services will account for more than one third of North American business mobile services spending. Such applications increase employee productivity and have demonstrable ROI, and as a result can command high ARPUs.

Principal analyst Dan Shey says, "Mobile operators have served all customers very well with mobile entertainment including ring-tones, games and video downloads. But what are the opportunities for all value chain players to serve business customers with applications that help them perform their jobs every day?"

In a new market data product, ABI Research answers this question by providing forecasts for North American business customer applications and services in six service categories covering all voice and data mobile productivity applications.

They predict that data services will gradually become a larger share of wallet for the business customer, equaling 34 percent in North America by 2012. Moreover, the ecosystem that will serve up data services to the business customer is complex -- including many players.

That said, the opportunity varies by the type of business customer application.

Shey comments, "Whether you are a developer or a wireless operator, you need to understand the differences in adoption and usage of different service categories for different customer segments. This data will drive product development efforts, acquisition considerations, and marketing and distribution strategies in a highly competitive mobile environment. Without this information, resources could be misaligned, and opportunities missed."

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