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Investment in mobile solutions is expected to hit US$542 billion in Asia Pacific in 2018, as regional businesses look to become 'mobile first' organisations.
According to an IDC forecast, the region, excluding Japan, recorded 5.7 per cent year-on-year growth from 2017 and is expected to reach US$615.4 billion by 2022.
Spending on mobility-related hardware, software, and services is estimated to reach a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.7 per cent in the same period, surpassing global growth which will stand at 2.8 per cent.
Fuelling the region’s growth is the consumer demand for businesses to deliver “mobile-first experiences”, alongside the rise of emerging technologies including augmented and virtual reality, AI and 5G over the next few years.
“The region is leading the charge in becoming a mobile-first society,” said Avinav Trigunait, research director of Future of Work at IDC Asia Pacific.
“Favourable government policies for mobile payments, healthcare, connectivity and citizen focus services are propelling overall investments in mobile technologies and ecosystem development.
"While for many years the mobility discussions focused on tactical issues such as access to resources and device policies, now organisations are focusing on mobilising business processes and workflows to drive mobile-first experiences for both employees and customers."
More than half of the expenditure in 2018 came from investment in hardware, representing US$271 billion, while services and software represented 49.7 per cent and 0.3 per cent market share respectively.
The majority of services investment is spent on connectivity, with overall expenditure expected to reach US$290 billion by 2022.
Meanwhile, although mobility software technology spending reached a comparatively low US$1.7 billion this year, it is expected to be the strongest growth area over the next three years, posting a 25.7 per cent CAGR over the forecast period.
Mobile enterprise applications will be the largest segment of software followed by mobile enterprise security.
The consumer segment will account for more than 84 per cent of total mobility spending throughout the forecast period.
The banking, education and discrete manufacturing will drive commercial investment with connectivity and hardware, enterprise mobility services leading business priorities.
