The Middle East, particularly the GCC, is widely known for its high dependency on mobile phone usage and the increasing numbers of smartphones. Accompanying this trend is a need to deploy higher speed mobile and wireless broadband technologies that will essentially tie in the existing drive for a diversified and privatised economy, and will embody the growing trends of obtaining more enterprise applications.

According to the latest research by International Data Corporation (IDC), 2010 is a year that marks significant developments within the Middle East with broadband penetration at three per cent. There are a couple of factors driving the growth, consumers choosing to join businessmen and use smartphones leading to an increase in mobile traffic used for internet-based services such as social networking, location-based services, navigation/local search, instant messaging, along with other applications.

The use of such technologies has undoubtedly created new opportunities for telecommunications operators as they can build more partnership promotions with smartphone makers that aim at increasing data traffic across their networks.

In 2010, the role of mobile services is crucial. The region is experiencing more developments and advancements in mobile technologies.

The continuing rise of smartphone sales indicates the growing importance of developing more content for mobile use. Consumers as well as corporate companies are realising the rise in smartphone use. The growing sales have signalled a continuous demand by consumers to use their smartphones for personal and business purposes, as well as accessing more applications that include popular social networking websites such as Twitter, and Facebook. With more smartphones in demand, there is a need to create more mobile news content. Companies as well as media conglomerates are responding to the growing trend of relying heavily on smartphones as a primary source of obtaining news and information. Examples of these are CNN and BBC, who have developed smartphone applications to receive a range of up to date content including news roundups, weather forecasts, and commenting on published articles.

The GCC's SMEs market is also experiencing vibrant growth – higher than Latin America, the UK, the US and Canada – providing the need for SMEs to secure more efficient mobility services to react promptly to customer enquiries. The Middle East, in-line with global market trends is quickly shaping up and is witnessing the impact that SMEs have on national economies.

A recent study that was conducted by HSBC on SME growth indicates that the GCC has a flourishing SME economy with 47 per cent predicting growth over the next six months. Sustaining a competitive edge is critical in an increasingly fast paced environment. Key to that success will be the ability for SME employees to react promptly and operate effectively wherever they are – at home, in the office or traveling – safe in the knowledge that that their communications are reliable and more importantly secure.

The telecom sector is recognising this fact as an important one for SMEs – the ability to operate seamlessly regardless of location. For instance, there has been specialist server software developed for SMEs that in conjunction with a BlackBerry smartphone device allows SMEs to experience the same benefits as a large enterprise for mobility services.

Having the ability to communicate in multiple ways enables employees to keep in touch with their audiences using the medium they prefer. In fact, the two most popular ways for SMEs in the UK to communicate with their stakeholders are e-mail and voice calls.

According to the Ipsos Mori survey, 41 per cent of SMEs cite being fast to react to customer queries as the most critical aspect to being successful with customers. Firms in the region have realised the benefits of enterprise mobility through reduced response time, providing quicker decision making, receiving continuous updates, having better collaboration among employees, creating more productivity, and helping to enhance better quality of work.

An increasingly widespread network of high bandwidth and decreased latency in the Middle East translates to better reliability for mobile devices and offers a compelling reason for the growing presence of BlackBerry smartphones in Middle Eastern workplaces.

 

- The writer is General Manager – Middle East, Research In Motion. The views expressed are his own