Smartphone Business Apps On The RiseSmartphone Business Apps On The Rise

Businesses over the next three years will deploy applications on smartphones at twice the rate of those on notebooks, an analyst firm predicted Friday.

In addition, deployments of smartphones will increase at a rate four times greater than that of notebooks, said Jack Gold, principal analyst of J. Gold Associates.

In a poll of 340 large and small companies in North America and Western Europe, Gold found that businesses would "dramatically increase their deployment of mobile applications on smartphones to the detriment of laptops."

The study found that the median number of smartphones would grow 30% in one year and 100% in three years. Further, access to corporate applications from these devices would rise 71% in one year and 196% in three years.

The median number of notebooks deployed would rise at a much slower rate, with no laptops expected to be deployed in one year and an increase of 25% in three years. Access to corporate applications with notebooks would increase 75% in one year and 100% in three years, Gold found.

In a poll of 400 businesses released in September, a Gold study found that Research In Motion's BlackBerry would remain the dominant mobile platform in three years, but deployments would fall slightly to 59.3% from 65.5% today.

Windows Mobile, meanwhile, would gain in importance, rising from 22.5% of deployments today to 28.6% in three years. Apple's iPhones would be deployed in 16% of companies in three years, while Google's Android would garner 4.8% of deployments, behind Palm, 9.1%; Linux, 6.1%; and Nokia, 5.6%.

Smartphone use is also expected to increase significantly among consumers, who will buy more of the devices to access popular Web applications, such as search, social networking, and online video, according to ABI Research. Shipments of smartphones with browsers capable of accessing those services are expected to rise to 530 million units by 2013 from 130 million in 2008.

For more insight into how smartphones are fitting into business strategies, information has prepared an independent analysis of the topic. Download the report here (registration required).