Europe will spend $325bn on mobility solutions by 2022, IDC predicts

Europe's spending on mobility products and services will grow to $325 billion by 2022, according to the IDC. If so, this will be an increase of $32 billion - up from $293 billion in 2018.

The importance of mobility

The IDC also forecasts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in spending of 2.4% from 2017-2022. During the five year period, consumers will make up 65% of the total spending.

Connectivity services will benefit from over half of the total spending, with the remainder going on devices like smartphones. This is in part due to an increased awareness of the importance of mobility in the enterprise.

IDC predictions

According to the research, services will account for $190 billion of total mobility spending in 2022. Within this sector, mobile connectivity represents the largest segment of spending, but growth will remain somewhat linear.

Despite this, enterprise mobility services will see a CAGR of 14%. In addition, hardware will constitute $129 billion of the total spending, with mobility software following shortly behind.

"Western European companies now have a clear understanding of the benefit mobility technologies can deliver and are evolving their approach — focusing on applications integrated with enterprise systems," Gabriele Roberti, research manager for IDC EMEA Customer Insights and Analysis said. "In customer-centric industries, like financial services and retail, mobility is becoming a pivotal part of digital transformation."

The way people communicate has changed

The Unified Communications voice equipment market in enterprise is also forecast to grow dramatically by 2021. According to a new report, the demand for voice mail, e-mail, audio and video conference, telephone PBXs and instant messengers is set to rise.

SVP Cloud Operations Curtis Peterson at RingCentral touched on the significance of mobility in accelerating digital transformation. At IP EXPO Europe 2018, he said “the way people communicate has changed.”

Specifically, the way people communicate has become “multi-modal, global, mobile, always-on.” IDC reiterated this sentiment in their research note, it said "new mobility use cases and technology adoption among enterprises is driving growth in all market segments from devices to software and services."

What are the advantages of adapting to a fast-pace communications culture? Listen to our podcast with UC expert and VP of Nemertes Research, Irwin Lazar to find out