Mobile UC Market Could Be Worth $17.38B by 2019

The increasing demand for smartphones, tablets and workforce mobility will drive the mobile unified communications (UC) market’s growth over the next several years, according to a new MarketsandMarkets forecast.

MarketsandMarkets researchers said they expect the mobile UC market’s worth to increase from $5.15 billion in 2014 to $17.38 billion by 2019, which represents a 27.5 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

Researchers added they anticipate North America will be the biggest market for mobile UC, while the Europe and Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions are expected to experience increased market traction over the next few years as well.

The demand for bring-your-own-device (BYOD) in businesses worldwide also could help drive the mobile UC market’s growth, researchers noted.

Mobility is key for many businesses, and BYOD supports the rapidly growing mobile workforce.

Technology research firm Gartner, for example, recently pointed out “BYOD drives innovation for chief information officers” and often enables smaller businesses to incorporate mobile devices into their everyday operations without significant investments.

“The benefits of BYOD include creating new mobile workforce opportunities, increasing employee satisfaction and reducing or avoiding costs,” Gartner Vice President David Willis said in a prepared statement.

UCaaS market could expand

While MarketsandMarkets researchers are predicting the mobile UC market’s worth will increase, the unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) sector’s worth could grow too.

Many enterprises and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are interested in UCaaS because it provides “a highly standardized, pre-integrated, permanently updated and ready-to-go service that enhances a client’s productivity and accelerates business processes and decision-making while lowering costs,” according to MarketsandMarkets.

The UCaaS market’s worth is expected to grow from $2.52 billion in 2013 to $7.62 billion by 2018, MarketsandMarkets said, and the global UCaaS telephony market’s worth is expected to increase from $0.87 billion in 2013 to $2.48 billion by 2018.

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