Wireless email is one of the largest segments in the mobile enterprise application market and its installed base continues to grow as new customers deploy the solution and those with deployments expand their footprint, according to new analysis from Frost & Sullivan. The research concludes that wireless email is transitioning from a nice to have to must have application, and that there is a growing market momentum among end users to formulate mobility strategies centred on wireless email.
The report, European Wireless E-Mail Markets, reveals that this market earned revenues of 1.86 billion (1.33 billion) in 2007 and estimates this to reach 6.65 billion in 2012.
The business case justifying the benefits of mobile connectivity is well understood and appreciated, notes Frost and Sullivan Industry Analyst, Shomik Banerjee. Mobile connectivity not only improves flexibility, but also allows faster decision making and increases efficiency by utilising the otherwise wasted time e.g. by travelling. Overall, it improves the effectiveness of the user to the business.
Most European mobile operators have built a wireless email portfolio encompassing third-party solutions such as BlackBerry, Good and Microsoft, as well as their own branded push email services based on white-label products from vendors such as Visto, Seven and Nokia/Intellisync. RIM partners offer the BlackBerry Internet Service modality, which permits subscribers to connect their personal email accounts (for example, on GMail or MSN) to a BlackBerry push email service run by the operators. These offerings are aimed at consumers, small businesses, and prosumers a crossover category between professional business users and consumers.
However, says Frost, limited interoperability in a fragmented value-chain is affecting market development. Furthermore, there has been a growing case for standardization as the technology has matured and moved past the early adopter phase. The efforts made by several stakeholders (P-IMAP) in this regard have yet to yield positive results.
The lack of initiative from the mobile industry to implement P-IMAP (push extension to IMAP one of the largely successful email technologies) developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is surprising, says Banerjee. Smaller vendors such as CriticalPath, Funambol and Synchronica support standards such as the Synchronisation Markup Language (SyncML) and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Push.
Individual market participants have adopted various means to overcome these challenges. RIM, for instance, offers an end-to-end service. Microsoft, on the other hand, is aiming to make it protocol (ActiveSync) the most widely used. Others offer abstraction through the use of middleware over a client-server model.
European Wireless E-Mail Markets is part of the Enterprise Communication Growth Partnership Services, which also includes research in the following markets: Mobile & Wireless Communications, Europe; ICT Market Engineering; Wireless and Mobile Communications Market Engineering; European Enterprise Communications; and Communications Services. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.
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