TELECOMS & MOBILE
Explosive growth due for wireless ASPs
03-10-2000
by
The market for wireless application service provision (ASP), although still in its infancy, will see triple digit growth according to an IDC report.
The new report from the analyst firm, Wireless ASPs: Who Is, Who Isn't and Who Want to Be, analyses the boom in the number of companies that offer services like customer relationship management and sales force automation. IDC expects the three segments of the wireless ASP space -- personal, collaborative, and enterprise -- will show a compound annual growth rate of more than 100 percent over the next few years.
The report says that companies offering such services for the wireless arena will see exponential growth, reaching revenues of USD732 million by 2004. Enterprise applications are poised for the most dramatic growth and will account for the most revenue. Personal and collaborative wireless ASPs will total USD132 million and USD211 million in revenue respectively by 2004, the company predicted.
In Ireland wireless ASPs have taken hold with recent announcements by companies including the E-blana Group, which will hire up to 120 people for a new wireless ASP based in Dundalk. Another Irish company, WASP technologies, specialises in developing enterprise applications for mobile devices, specifically the Palm platform. The company works on integrating Palm and WAP into existing enterprise database systems.
The US has seen a strong spike in the number of companies offering wireless service as an outsourced offering, including Air2Web Inc., 2Roam Inc. and ViaFone.com Inc, with early customers including the United Parcel Service and Charles Schwab. UPS is using Air2Web's service to extend its popular package tracking service to wireless devices.
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