Mobile market to remain strong in 2009

The market for enterprise mobile hardware and software will continue to grow

The market for mobile devices should ride the economic storm and remain strong in 2009, according to a recent analyst report.

Forrester Research analyst Michele Pelino predicted that the market for enterprise mobile hardware and software will continue to grow on the back of emerging markets, increased security demands and a renewed focus on cost-cutting.

"Mobile applications and solutions let enterprises cut costs and improve employee productivity or worker efficiency, all important initiatives in a constrained business environment," she said.

Emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific region are expected to see strong growth, as many companies are still in the process of maturing their mobile services. Pelino sees particular room for expansion in the market for software applications.

The analyst also predicted growth for mobile security in 2009. Compliance and security protections could become much more important aspects of devices and software packages, as employees rely more on mobile systems for work.

However, the most compelling mobile story of 2009 could be the battle between RIM's BlackBerry Storm and the Apple iPhone. Pelino predicts that the two devices will continue to contend for a common audience.

"We believe that the iPhone will make a more significant dent in the enterprise mobility market, primarily among small to medium sized businesses which typically do not have as strict IT requirements as large enterprises or widespread line-of-business application deployments," wrote the analyst.

"However, the BlackBerry Storm will give larger enterprises that already support BlackBerry an alternative solution that is comparable to the iPhone but does not require an additional operating system."