IDC: Huge Growth Ahead for Mobile Enterprise Management

Worldwide revenue from mobile enterprise management (MEM) software (which encompasses mobile device management and mobile application management software)  totaled $444.6 million in 2011, according to a report from IDC and is expected to grow significantly over the next few years.  IDC is forecasting total MEM software revenue to increase to $1.8 billion by 2016. What does this reveal about MDM and mobile application management (MAM) vendors?

Vendors, according to the report, are stepping up their direct and their indirect efforts into Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and Asia/Pacific. As a result of this expansion in efforts, vendors have started to see significant growth in interest and uptake from these regions. The MEM market can be divided into several broad categories including systems management and security vendors, mobility companies and others with mobility platforms.

Going forward mobile device management will address the needs of mobile devices such as smartphones like iPhone and Android phones and media tablets like iPad and Android tablets, and, increasingly, other areas like M2M modules and printers. Mobile application management (MAM), however, enables IT organizations to manage, distribute and secure mobile applications. MAM solutions typically allow for enhanced policies to be applied to individual applications. According to IDC, the merger of these two technology niches is a new market called mobile enterprise management software.

“The mobile enterprise management software market represents a category of mobility offerings that address the requirements of enterprises — that need solutions for both corporate- and employee-owned mobile devices — and users,” says Senior Analyst of Mobility Enterprise Research at IDC Stacy Cook.

That’s certainly where the industry is headed. But it’s got quite a ways to go. Many businesses, especially small business, lack effective mobile device management (MDM) implementations, as reported previously by MSPmentor. That means there are plenty of green field opportunities for MSPs to get in on the ground floor of supporting these companies as they grapple with the challenges of a fast-growing trend.