A $1 Trillion OpportunityA $1 Trillion Opportunity

How pervasive is mobile computing? In 2008, the cellular market will generate $1 trillion in revenue. That is $200 million more than Australia, which happens to have the 19th largest economy in the world. Wow, those are impressive numbers.The $1 trillion mark is found in Slicing Up The Mobile Services Revenue Pie, a market research report from Portio Research. The wireless market has been growing so quickly that it now stands at the top of the pecking order in terms of longest sustained expansion, surpassing other hot sectors, such as pharmaceuticals. That growth is expected to continue. The market research firm expects the number of mobile subscribers worldwide will increase from 3.1 billion at the end of 2007 to 5 billion by 2012.

Data communications are becoming more popular and are expected to be worth more than $250 billion in 2012. High end devices, which small and medium executives often depend on, are being used to do more than send messages or make phone calls. In October 2007, there were almost 6.8 million mobile video viewers in the US. By the end of 2010, Portio Research expects the number of mobile TV subscribers to reach 488.8 million worldwide.

What this means to small and medium businesses is clear: their company is being impacted by wireless capabilities in one way or another. Because the cost and functionality of these devices has been increasing, they need to determine how these services mesh with their business needs. If they dont  judging by the market numbers --, their competitors certainly will.

Which wireless services does your company use? What new services are you evaluating? What do you envision as the business benefits of adopting these services?