Pushing 3G higher
For 3G to be successful among enterprises, Menon noted that an ecosystem made up of service providers, software vendors, handset makers and systems integrators (SIs) must be in place.
"The telcos can work with the software vendors to provide 3G applications to small and midsize businesses, while the large SIs like IBM and Hewlett-Packard can service the large enterprises," he said. "Whether it's 2G or 3G, the industry has to make the right offer to enterprises."
According to Menon, Nextel in North America and Korea's SK Telecom have successfully marketed logistics and fleet management mobile applications to enterprises. This was mainly possible through alliances and partner programs that create ecosystems encompassing software vendors and systems integrators, he noted.
"Enterprise mobility was a huge topic of discussion in 2004, and since then, several large organizations have gone ahead to implement projects on a limited basis," he said. "By 2008, we should see Fortune 500 companies embrace enterprise mobility and take advantage of the power of 3G networks."
Menon said: "Companies are taking a step by step, and not a big bang, approach to mobility.
"They have not recovered from the investments lost when the dot-com bubble burst," he said, adding that 3G users will only make up 12 percent of all mobile subscribers by 2008.
Michael Yin, CEO of Singapore-based mobility software company Mozat, said many enterprises still do not see the need for 3G services as access speeds, at 384kbps, are not a lot higher than GPRS speeds of 114kbps.
"The 3G value chain is not connected right now," he said. "The right [mobility] applications are not there, there are not a lot of 3G devices and the price [of services] is not right."
According to Menon, however, unlimited 3G data plans might just bump up adoption rates of the technology. "Although access speeds of 3G may not be that great compared to high-speed [wired] broadband, unlimited plans are key growth drivers."
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