Mobile middleware provides the glue between an enterprise application and the remote worker who needs access to it while on business trips or while working in the field. Middleware consists of software that can either be hosted by a carrier or managed service provider or run behind the corporate firewall on servers connected to company database and application servers. The software allows remote synchronization of client software running on remote devices (e.g., wireless handhelds) and may provide IT managers with a means of centrally managing, provisioning, configuring, securing, and updating these devices.

Mobile e-mail is the most prevalent wireless application used by the enterprise, and middleware software to manage connectivity between a company’s Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise server is available from vendors such as RIM, Microsoft, Motorola/Good, Visto, and SEVEN. Other key horizontal applications include personal mobility solutions, such as messaging, calendar, and personal information management (PIM), or relate to organizational processes such as field force automation, sales force automation, tracking/logistics, or customer relationship management, providing access to corporate backend databases that support these functions. There are also vertical applications that cater to a particular industry segment such as manufacturing, health care, financial services, etc. Applications can be sold to end-user enterprise customers by a software vendor or separate middleware developer or as part of a service, where they are certified, tested, integrated, billed for, and supported by operators or integrators, with the software provider involved in co-marketing and support.

If applications require customization or substantial integration with other corporate IT and communications systems and applications, they may be integrated by SIs or partners that are part of a carrier’s ecosystem. There are also a wide variety of integrators that will take on mobile deployment initiatives with no particular relationship with a carrier. While carriers remain an important channel, mobile applications are often delivered by the software developer (i.e., the middleware provider or the corporate software application vendor itself) or integrator directly to the customer. Vendors may offer development platforms that enterprises can use to develop their own mobile solutions. Sybase, for example, offers a platform for mobilizing and securing e-mail and database applications. Hosted models are also increasingly popular, with companies such as salesforce.com and Antenna Software providing ASP-like mobile application services.

• Middleware Providers Go Beyond E-mail: Companies are now routinely providing mobile access to business process applications such as CRM, FFA, SFA, asset management, and dispatch. In some cases, the original corporate software provider (Oracle/Siebel, SAP, etc.) has come up with its own mobile version, but companies such as Salesforce.com, Dexterra, and Antenna Software offer hosted and behind-the-firewall options that connect to multiple back-ends. Products such as Sybase’s iAnywhere and RIM’s MDS application framework are also used as the middleware glue between corporate databases and mobile devices.

• Carrier-provided Managed Services Evolve: AT&T launched Mobile Enterprise Applications, an array of solutions and consulting services, including hosted options, which allow businesses to extend their business-critical information to mobile employees. The service features the AMP platform from Antenna Software, which extends connectivity to mobile devices from field service, sales force automation, and other key applications. Dexterra had launched a similar solution with Vodafone last year, although AT&T’s service is more extensible to high-end custom solutions.

• Consolidation Comes in Many Flavors: Middleware consolidation continued at the end of 2008, with Nokia disbanding its Intellisync enterprise software and with Antenna’s acquisition of Vettro. As a result of the discontinuing of Intellisync server-based offerings, not only are MDM specialists targeting Intellisync customers, but carriers that used Intellisync for managed services are going to be adjusting their own MDM and e-mail middleware options.

• Mobile Middleware and MDM/Security Are Linked: While the lines between mobile device management and security solutions are beginning to blur, major middleware vendors are also adding application-focused management and security capabilities. Dexterra, a leading mobile middleware provider for line-of-business applications, launched two-factor authentication for mobile business applications in August. Sybase is adding MDM and security for the iPhone, to fill gaps in Apple’s own capabilities. Motorola/Good has also set its sights on becoming a multi-platform provider of management and security for sophisticated LOB apps that bridge the WLAN and WWAN domains.

• IBM Expanding Mobile Notes Access: Just as Microsoft, SAP, and Oracle are trying to control their own destinies and customers by making middleware unnecessary, IBM announced in August that it would make it easier for mobile users to hook up to their 140,000+ corporate Notes/Domino e-mail accounts with IBM Traveler software. This will allow Notes access without requiring middleware from the likes of Synchronica or Sybase for device platforms such as the iPhone, Nokia Symbian, or potentially Linux Android handsets.

• Focus on SMBs: A relatively untapped market for wireless services has been the small and medium business. Carriers have extended their distribution partnerships to new retailers and distributors catering to this segment and have embedded modules within the laptops of key vendors to allow customers to access their 3G networks. Carriers, hosting companies (such as Intermedia, 4Smartphone, and Apptix) and integrators such as HP are also offering more hosted and/or managed services to target SMBs. As ease-of-use and cost management are key requirements of small businesses, we expect to see more integrated vertical and horizontal applications bundled with device management and security options for this segment.

• Business Apps Consolidation: Due to the large number of small mobile app vendors, we expect more consolidation. As vendors offer both application platforms and SaaS models and extend support to the same back-end databases, they are starting to look alike to the untrained eye. There is not enough room for many vendors chasing the same opportunities and a likely evolution will mimic what happened in mobile e-mail. A few dominant players will buy out smaller competitors (such as Antenna buying Vettro); those with less robust features, chasing narrower segments may go out of business; and/or several may band together via mergers or partnerships to offer more extensive features or increase their target market.

• Unified Messaging Key FMC App: The convergence of fixed and wireless services is getting attention as the premise of having a single mailbox, rather than separate IM, SMS, wireline voicemail, wireless voicemail, and e-mail boxes, takes hold. Also, messaging is evolving; while SMS is already the killer app in terms of revenues, it is often discounted as an enterprise service. IM has also been offered mainly to mobile consumers for communication among peer groups. As presence information becomes available through IMS and unified communications platforms, we see the future as offering access on handhelds to all voice and data “inboxes” (wireline voice, WWAN voice, WLAN voice, e-mail, SMS, IM) from the same UI.

• Emergence of Professional Services: While Nokia and Sprint have organizations to facilitate enterprise mobility beyond access or devices, wireless professional services remain immature. Many carriers do not think it is their place to provide consulting and integration, while most device vendors and infrastructure vendors are too tied to their own hardware. So, this leaves more traditional SIs/VARs/integrators that provide some services but have not yet promoted themselves as go-to providers of WWAN solutions. IBM and BT have already launched these kinds of services; 2009 will see others becoming more aggressive, including specialized mobile SIs such as Enterprise Mobile and large global integrators such as CSC, EDS, Cap Gemini, HP, Unisys, and Accenture.

• Microsoft’s Growing Strength: Microsoft is one of the fastest-growing middleware platforms in today’s mobility market, after a late entry. With Windows Mobile 6.1, SC MDM device management, and the presence management server in place, Microsoft is also partnering with ISVs under its SaaS incubation program to roll out more hosted applications on the Windows platform. While businesses still love the BlackBerry as the best e-mail device, Windows Mobile may offer a more strategic platform for LOB application deployments, especially if they are already Microsoft shops for other computing platforms. Future OS enhancements (e.g., Windows Mobile 6.5/7.0) are expected to add more consumer-friendly features such as an App store and Outlook Live, which allows multiple inboxes to be synched.

• More Competition for Business Handsets and Middleware: Microsoft and RIM are not the only game in town; the mobile device world is shifting towards consumer handsets such as the Apple iPhone and Nokia Nseries, which are steadily infiltrating corporations as well. Microsoft competitors are moving to open source and free distribution including Symbian, Android, and mobile Linux. Free alternatives are appealing to hardware vendors and even Microsoft licensees are hedging their bets. For sustained growth, however, Apple and OEMs working on Linux Android devices must ensure that both business applications and the tools to manage and secure them are in place. This leaves room for the middleware and MDM vendors to do their magic to fill in gaps.

• ROI Is Key: While the economy is currently repressing IT budgets (which in turn has affected the rise of large mobility deployments for LOB apps), the positive spin on this is that mobile access drives productivity and actually enhances the bottom line. Although there may be a short-term damper on large projects, EM is still a key growth area for the carriers, device vendors, application vendors, and providers of MDM, security, and professional services.

• Open Networks Drive Application Innovation: The lock-hold that carrier has had in offering devices and applications to businesses will open up with the advent of open OSs and networks, including Linux OS initiative Android and Verizon Wireless’ plan to allow any device or application that has been certified to run over its network. Mobile WiMAX will also open up the floodgates of innovation with new devices, apps, and business models. While the most obvious segment to benefit from these trends is the consumer, there is also an opportunity for innovation in business apps. We also expect to see unlocked custom business devices available without carrier subsidies from OEMs.

• 4G Networks Loom: Although carriers are completing 3G upgrades (EV-DO Rev. 0/A and UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA), the next generation (including already-launched WiMAX by Sprint/Clearwire) is around the corner. LTE deployments may even show up by the end of the year. While speed is important (having low latency and decent uplink speeds in addition to downlink speeds, key for VoIP, PTT, and interactive database applications), carriers need new services to justify their large capital investments. Even if we are skeptical of carriers’ ability to leverage their faster, lower-latency networks with innovative business services, there is value in faster, symmetrical access. Whether Web browsing, sending graphics-intensive attachments, or accessing/updating corporate databases, it helps to have a fatter pipe.

• FMC Will Penetrate Middleware Offerings: While real network-level fixed/mobile convergence remains a year or two away, there are an increasing number of bundled wireline and wireless solutions, WLAN/cellular devices and trials, and PBX extension software/services that treat wireless access as a bona fide corporate technology. While middleware vendors are beginning to scope out their role in these market segments, most of the work in FMC has come out of the PBX vendors and carrier infrastructure vendors. Mobile middleware has traditionally focused on data access; seamless voice integration over disparate networks is harder to implement given QoS requirements. In the future, we expect to see more integration of voice, data, and even video over fixed and wireless access as all-IP networks and UC initiatives evolve.

• No Need for a Killer Application: Industry stakeholders have begun to realize that there is no need for a killer application to drive the enterprise mobility market; rather, service packaging, delivery, and a business-centric services approach are essential to the growth of the mobile applications market. Although e-mail and messaging have remained the primary services, there is a wealth of applications enabling key functions such as mobile SFA, CRM, and ERP; building commercial viability is the challenge. In the long run, there will also be an emphasis not only on mobilizing apps, but also on radically changing business processes due to the ability to perform tasks remotely in real-time.

• Video Business Applications Will Emerge: With 3G (and especially 4G networks available over the next 12-18 months), the emergence of video-powered mobile business applications will open up. While we now have consumer video-share, allowing customers to essentially see what the other mobile handset user is seeing and capturing, true video conferencing is still dependent on better latency, higher resolution, faster speeds, and network infrastructure enhancements that deliver quality of service guarantees.