Expanding Beyond Mobility Management: Enterprise Mobile Application and Service Revenues to Reach $430 Billion in 2021

As employee mobile devices prove a necessity to productivity and business development, ABI Research forecasts a major transformation will occur in mobile application and service revenues in enterprise as companies expand beyond mobility management. Market figures are forecast to rise from an estimated $350 billion in 2016 to nearly $430 billion in 2021. Business-to-employee (B2E) application and mobile device management revenues will experience the greatest growth over the next five years.

“Due to mobile devices’ strong influences to daily workflows, cellular voice and messaging services are beginning to represent a smaller portion of the overall market,” says Jeff Orr, Research Director at ABI Research. “It’s time for companies to move beyond enterprise mobility management and pivot their resources toward applications and programs that grow their businesses and deliver a competitive advantage.”

An increasing amount of future applications and service revenues from business-owned mobile devices will stem from B2E apps and mobility management. ABI Research finds this evident in its below forecasts:

• Total mobile and application service revenues to increase by 18% from 2016 to 2021
• Global cellular voice revenues to remain flat from 2016 to 2021
• Global mobile messaging (SMS/MMS) service revenues to decline by 3% by 2021

By the end of 2016, more than 875 million business customers will have a mobile device or portable computer managed by their employer, and this will grow to more than one billion business users in 2021. And while the benefits to mobile devices in enterprise are substantial, businesses still question the operational expenses.

“As user demand increases, many companies are now asking their IT teams to develop applications and services for these mobile devices that benefit the organization’s productivity and financial bottom-line,” concludes Orr. “As such, it is crucial that businesses take the time to understand how mobile applications and services can drive down cost and improve workflow.”

These findings are from ABI Research’s Enterprise Mobility market data. This product is part of the company’s Enterprise IT & OT Convergence sector, which includes research, data, and analyst insights.