Mobile E-Mail Leading To Broader Data Access: Study

Even though adoption of mobile e-mail has soared in the last year, it's still just getting off the ground and has plenty of room to grow, according to a study released Monday by market research firm In-Stat.

There are between four and five million mobile e-mail users in the U.S., but the potential market is as high as 30 million users, the study concluded. That projection will come true as mobile wireless access becomes faster and users start demanding access to enterprise data and not just e-mail, the study said.

"For now, mobile workers value mobile data services in general, but don't see much value in specific, richer services such as application access," Allyn Hall, an In-Stat analyst, said in a statement. "Subscribers need better handsets and greater network bandwidth to take advantage of the full range of mobile data services. The sooner 3G or faster networks are in place and mobile workers acquire handsets with more powerful processors, more memory, better screens, and keyboards, the sooner explosive market growth can occur."

After e-mail, the study predicted that the next widely accepted mobile applications will be sales force automation and field force automation.