IDC predicts 850m remote workers by 2009

As global organisations ramp up implementations of remote access and mobility technology, industry experts have predicted that the mobile worker population will increase from more than 650 million worldwide in 2004, to more than 850 million in 2009, representing more than a quarter of the global workforce.

Since 1999, IDC has been forecasting the mobile worker population across a variety of regions and at a country level.

According to the analyst's newly published global study of mobile working trends, Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) has the largest number of mobile workers, followed by the US and Western Europe.

The US had highest percentage of mobile workers in its workforce in 2004, and is expected to reach over 70 per cent mobile workforce penetration by the end of the forecast period, thereby making it the most mobile-enabled workforce across the five regions covered in the study.

"Organisations deploying mobile solutions, and suppliers delivering mobile solutions to customers, should focus on emerging regions where mobility is taking off, especially in areas where mobile enterprise deployments may leap-frog much of the traditional wire-based technology," said Stephen Drake, programme director for IDC's Mobile Software service.

IDC segments the mobile worker population into three core categories: office-based mobile workers, non-office-based mobile workers, and home-based mobile workers.