Wireless e-mail to the masses

Wireless e-mail is undergoing a democratisation process that will bring it to the masses, says research house Gartner. Not only is wireless e-mail spreading ever-wider across the enterprise, but consumers will increasingly access their e-mail on mobile devices.

The company says there are less than 20 million business users of wireless e-mail worldwide, representing just 2% of all e-mail accounts. Analysts predict that the progressive availability of products and services will allow 350 million business and consumer users access to wireless e-mail by 2010, translating into 20% of all e-mail accounts being wireless-enabled. Gartner expects wireless e-mail to reach commodity status by 2012.

Gartner's research shows that, as consumer technologies continue to infiltrate the enterprise as a result of IT consumerisation, an increasing number of employees will have the ability to access corporate e-mail and other applications from personal devices.

Meanwhile, it says a reverse-consumerisation trend is creating a new demand for mobile e-mail outside the enterprise boundaries, from prosumers (professional consumers) and consumers. Traditional business e-mail centric devices are transforming into personal devices that span both professional and consumer life.

"Over the next three years, wireless e-mail will become increasingly popular with both businesses and consumers," said Monica Basso, research VP at Gartner. Basso says growth in the consumer market will be fuelled by the increasing availability of wireless e-mail support, both in devices and from service providers, as well as by improved usability.

Corporate use will also increase as enterprises come under mounting pressure to provide real-time communications for their expanding mobile workforce, she says. "By 2012, wireless e-mail products will be fully interoperable, commoditised and have standard features. They will be shipping in larger volumes at greatly reduced prices."

Basso cites convergence as a longer-term trend that will accompany wireless e-mail adoption. "Many users are frustrated with the volume of communications tools they have to deal with and these technologies will eventually converge into a single, technology-transparent and presence-enabled messaging style.

"Convergence will happen on the client side, hiding technology complexity from users and allowing them to focus on messaging content. By 2017, wireless e-mail will be fully-integrated with other messaging tools into personal, converged communications. Companies like Microsoft, IBM, Nokia and RIM are already taking some steps in this direction," she says.

* "The Consumerisation of IT" is the theme of the upcoming Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Africa 2007, from 27 to 29 August 2007 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.