FRAMINGHAM, Mass.-IDC said there is tremendous growth potential in the market for business-focused phones, and predicted that Microsoft Corp’s involvement with Motorola Inc., Palm Inc., and others, as well as Nokia Corp.’s commitment to an end-to-end strategy, threatens to weaken Research in Motion Ltd.’s stronghold within the enterprise arena.
The research firm said it sees significant opportunities for differentiation and specialization arising from stringent I.T. requirements and increasing demands for additional features and functionality. Indeed the potential is giving rise to a fiercely competitive environment comprised of device vendors battling for dominance within the mobile enterprise market.
And while IDC believes RIM is the undisputed market leader in the enterprise with more than 6.2 million subscribers worldwide and fiscal-year 2006 sales of about $2 billion, the firm noted that competitors are challenging RIM’s eight-year leading position with new, BlackBerry-style devices.
IDC named Nokia and Motorola as strong competitors because of their leadership in the worldwide mobile-phone market, which gives them brand influence and power over enterprise supply chains.
“The Motorola Q and Nokia E61 are high-profile devices intended to generate buzz and to resonate with business users on both a functional and personal level,” IDC stated.
Drilling deeper into the fight for the enterprise market, IDC pointed out that both Motorola and Nokia are leveraging well-established software companies. While Nokia has Intellisync, Motorola has combined forces with Microsoft in offering devices running Windows Mobile. Further, Motorola recently announced a deal to buy enterprise device vendor Symbol Technologies Inc.
Microsoft, according to IDC, is the key partner to give device vendors such as Motorola, HTC, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Palm the ability to attack the core BlackBerry user base.
