Cloud computing expected to dominate development by 2014

The number of mobile cloud computing subscribers worldwide will grow from 42.8 million subscribers in 2008 (approximately 1.1 percent of all mobile subscribers) to slightly more than 998 million in 2014, or nearly 19 percent of subscribers, according to a new forecast issued by ABI Research. "By 2014, mobile cloud computing will become the leading mobile application development and deployment strategy, displacing today's native and downloadable mobile applications," said ABI senior analyst Mark Beccue in a prepared statement. According to Beccue, subscriber numbers will be driven by location-enabled services, particularly navigation and map applications: "A total of 60 percent of mobile cloud application subscribers worldwide will use an application enabled by location [between 2008 and 2010]."

ABI Research expects some or all of the major PaaS platforms--among them Google, Amazon AWS, and Force.com--will begin aggressively marketing their mobile capabilities beginning next year, and anticipates that business productivity applications will soon dominate the spectrum of mobile cloud apps, led by collaborative document sharing, scheduling and sales force management apps.

For more on the ABI Research forecast:
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