Yankee Group Reveals Increased Wireless Investments by US Businesses Survey Identifies Emerging Market Demands, Trends Driving Greater
Friday, 23 June 2006
Yankee Group announced the results of its 2006 Transatlantic Wireless Business Survey — an assessment of the current usage of and future demand for wireless voice and data solutions among US large enterprises and small and medium businesses (SMBs).
Some of the major highlights include:
· The overall mobility market for enterprises and SMBs has not experienced much growth. The enterprise mobile workforce only grew 1 percent, from 40 percent in 2005 to 41 percent in 2006. The smallest small business segment shows the greatest market potential for the increased adoption of mobile services, with 64 percent of the group being mobile.
· The US wireless business market has evolved to a Big Three carrier landscape, where Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and Cingular own 80 percent of the primary relationships in the enterprise market and 72 percent of the relationships in the SMB market.
· Despite heightened concerns over corporate network and data security, integration complexity, pricing and geographic coverage, almost 50 percent of enterprises and more than 30 percent of SMBs have deployed or conducted trials of a mobile data solution.
· Wireless local-area network (WLAN) adoption has reached mass-market status among US large businesses. US small businesses are also increasingly—yet cautiously—rolling out WLANs. More than 61 percent of US large business and 42 percent of US small business respondents have either deployed or are piloting WLAN solutions. Additionally, 62 percent of both large and small businesses that have deployed WLAN describe their deployment as enabling full in-building coverage.
"These survey results illustrate that even with clear growth opportunities in the US mobile business market, a number of adoption barriers exist that limit terminal potential," said Nathan Dyer, Yankee Group Wireless/Mobile Enterprise Solutions analyst. "Greater knowledge of workforce mobility from a user level as well as business justifications for wireless investments from a decision-maker level will be critical to vendors and service providers to maintain relevance in this market."