NORTH SYDNEY, 10th December 2007 - IDC's latest end-user research reveals that over half of Australian Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) exhibit entrenched usage behaviour of mobile and wireless technology. This study, "Australia Small and Medium-Sized Business Wireless and Mobility Technology Adoption, 2007" investigates mobile and wireless technology usage, adoption, and preferences amongst Australian SMBs. It discusses the SMB use of mobile voice and data services, device adoption, as well as preferred mobile operators.

Australian SMBs are widely embracing mobile phones by either providing fully paid mobile phones to their employees or by reimbursing employees using their own mobile phone. Mobile phones are nowadays strongly entrenched in Australia's working culture. Mobile data spending is steadily increasing in SMBs, primarily driven by mobile email, thanks to the widespread availability of 3G/3.5G mobile networks.

"Business adoption and usage of mobile email is the most dominant application” says Jean-Marc Annonier, IDC's Research Manager for Small and Medium Business Markets. "However ‘second-wave’ business productivity applications, such as field force automation and sales force automation, are currently idling as developments are in still in progress. Leading mobility providers are taking this opportunity to revamp and streamline their communications solutions," adds Annonier.

"There is a great deal of opportunity to educate the SMB market about the benefits of mobilising business communications and eventually, applications. Developments around enterprise mobility suites as well as the hype around Unified Communications creates a very valid case in demonstrating that ‘first-wave’ enterprise mobility has a great deal of potential left untapped and is a powerful catalyst to mobile applications," he adds.

The IDC study also finds that:

# Dual-mode mobile handsets are here to stay. The emergence of dual-mode mobile handsets is steadily becoming a reality with mass-market handsets (such as Nokia's E65) starting to make an impact, and highly anticipated mobile phone releases (such as RIM's BlackBerry range) are now offering Wi-Fi connectivity, opening the door to developments such as VoIP and mobile email over Wi-Fi and 3G.

# The "prosumer" effect is driving mobility adoption. There has been a steady number business individuals who opt to self implement a mobility strategy in a bid to respond to a business issue via an IT solution. Some of the most typical solutions would be multimedia laptops used in the workplace, GPS navigation, and mobile phones with data connectivity. This "prosumer" effect represents a window of opportunity that reveals some of the most powerful influencers in business mobility practices.

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IDC research: http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=AU381108P

If you would like further information or to purchase IDC research, please contact Gary Clarke, IDC Associate VP of Sales via email gclarke@idc.com or phone 02 9925 2226.

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For press enquiries please contact: Jean-Marc Annonier Research Manager, IT Spending, Vertical Markets and SMEs Phone: 61 2 9925 2221 Email: jannonier@idc.com

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