ABI Research forecasts that the number of people using mobile cloud services will rapidly grow over the next five years, reaching 998 million in 2014. Last year, these kind of services were used by 42.8 million subscribers, which is approximately 1.1% of all mobile users. In comparison, the number of people that are expected to use mobile cloud in 2014 will represent nearly 19% of all mobile phone users.
Senior analyst Mark Beccue argues that from 2008 through 2010, subscriber numbers will be driven by location-enabled services, particularly navigation and map applications. “A total of 60% of the mobile Cloud application subscribers worldwide will use an application enabled by location during these years,” he added.
As an innovative mobile cloud service, ABI mentions lock manufacturer Schlage, which product called LiNK enables users to remotely control not only the door lock, but heating/cooling, security cameras and light monitors, all via PC or mobile device. On that note, ABI expects some or all of the major PaaS (Product-as-a-Service) platforms – Google, Amazon AWS, and Force.com to start marketing their mobile capabilities in 2010. In addition, the research company said they expect that by 2014, mobile cloud becomes the leading mobile application development and deployment strategy, “displacing today’s native and downloadable mobile applications.”
More information about ABI Research’s study “Mobile Cloud Computing” is available from their website.