Prosumers reveal a growing appetite for Enterprise Mobility in Asia/Pacific Excluding Japan, says IDC

10 October, 2006

Singapore and Hong Kong, 10 October, 2006 – Prosumers in the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) region are using enterprise mobility applications and services to carry out business or office work. However, the usage of enterprise mobility applications is largely restricted to voice and SMS, and certain basic applications such as SMS applications and value-added services like call forwarding and call conferencing, according to IDC's Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) Joint Mobility Survey, 2006 found in the latest report, Managing the Prosumers: What are IT Managers to do? (Doc #AP206112N)
"The increasing number of prosumers has thrown up opportunities as well as challenges for enterprises. The prosumers' enthusiasm to use enterprise mobility applications can be leveraged by enterprises for productivity enhancement. Organizations planning to deploy enterprise mobility need to consider the usage preferences of prosumers within the companies in order to ensure greater end-user adoption of enterprise mobility applications," says Shalini Verma, senior market analyst for IDC's Asia/Pacific Enterprise Mobility Research.

Prosumers or professional consumers use mobile devices to fulfill their personal and business requirements. They have a direct relationship with mobile service providers (SPs) but their companies pay for the mobile service charges.

The report is based on findings from IDC’s Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) Joint Mobility Survey, 2006 that gauges the prosumers' usage trends related to mobile devices and applications in the Asia/Pacific region. Besides providing an in-depth understanding of enterprise mobility–related usage patterns and preferences of prosumers in the region, the study also offers recommendations to end-user organizations.

The survey reveals that in the future, respondents would prefer to use applications that have a more direct impact on their workflow. These applications include mobile email, mobile enterprise applications, file and data synchronization, and access to corporate intranet. Mobile email finds the highest favor among prosumers with 47.5% of the respondents wanting to use mobile email in the future.

Prosumers have cited data speed as the key driver and the lack of data speed as a key inhibitor for adopting enterprise mobility applications. Mobile Operators and enterprise mobility players will need to find more efficient ways to handle data on 2.5 network, which is the predominant access network currently used by prosumers. IT Managers will need to increasingly plan their IT initiatives keeping prosumers in mind.

Contact

Shalini Verma
Senior Market Analyst, Asia/Pacific Enterprise Mobility Research
Tel: +603-2169 7520
Email: sverma@idc.com

Stephen Chong
Events & Marketing Executive
Tel: +603-2169 7521
Email:ckchong@idc.com