Enterprise mobility management market set to quadruple

The enterprise mobility management software market is expected to quadruple over the next four years, according to the latest report from Ovum, which says APAC has the biggest opportunities for growth.

The report says that despite EMM software being a relatively niche part of the IT stack,  it is playing an increasingly important role in managing and securing apps and devices.

"While security concerns around bring your own device have so far driven this still-immature market, the opportunity for mobile enterprise apps to transform business processes is transforming this relatively niche market into a widely adopted, mainstream IT proposition," explains Richard Absalom, principal analyst and author of the report.

Absalom says mobility has an impact on every kind of business and this trend is an indication of why the market is set to grow at a significant CAGR of 29.5%, from a base of US$2.7bn in 2014 to just under US$10bn by 2019.

"As enterprise mobility management strategies mature, enterprise IT departments think less in terms of basic device management and security and more about how usage of these mobile devices can transform business processes," he says. "This inevitably drives them toward mobile app adoption.

Absalom says mobile device management (MDM) has been the primary building block for EMM solutions.

He says of the seven technology components that Ovum defines as comprising the EMM market, MDM generated the most revenues in 2014 by some margin and will continue to do so until 2016.

However, MDM as a category is commoditising and EMM vendors are turning instead to mobile app management (MAM) and mobile app development platforms (MADPs) to provide added value to customers and drive their own growth, Absalom explains.

"It is these two segments that will be the primary drivers of growth in the EMM software market over the next four years," he says.

According to the report, North America has been the biggest geographic market for EMM software. However, Absalom says demand for mobility is taking off everywhere and while North America will maintain the biggest share (39%) of the market by 2019, that share is shrinking – down from 56% in 2014.

Demand in Europe also means that the EMEA region will remain an important market, with a 35% share by 2019. The opportunities for fastest growth are coming from Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Latin America (LATAM).

"The continued high rates of BYOD behaviour in these regions is changing the way that people work, and businesses looking to manage that behaviour are increasingly turning to EMM software," Absalom says.

"The APAC market is set to grow at a CAGR of over 50% and account for 19% of the overall market by 2019. LATAM will also see fast growth – almost 48% CAGR from 2014–19 – although it will remain by some distance the smallest regional market.