21 Feb 2016

SINGAPORE, February 22, 2016 –According to IDC's new Worldwide Semiannual Mobility Spending Guide , enterprise and consumer spending on mobile devices and related software and services in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.0% from $514 billion in 2015 to $578 billion by 2019, making it the largest region in the world in terms of mobility related spend. The new Spending Guide expands on IDC's previous mobility market forecasts by offering greater detail on industry and geographic spending levels. While the overall growth in the mobility market may seem muted, the underlying trends show significant shifts across technology, geography and industry segments.

As hardware growth matures, software- and services-related spend will ramp up as organizations across industries start exploring the opportunities created by mobility solutions. IDC's Spending Guide shows software revenues will double from today's levels, reaching USD 2 billion by 2019 as the app economy blossoms across the region. However, monetization models for these apps will still be primarily services-driven with the app acting more as a conduit to acquire customers. IDC expects the services component in Asia/Pacific to reach USD 332 billion by 2019, growing even bigger than hardware that is expected to touch USD 243 billion by 2019.

From a geographic perspective, China will dominate spend across the technology categories in the region, with services already bigger than the hardware spend there. Emerging Asian countries, however, continue to see growth in hardware spend as many consumers and enterprises in these markets embrace mobile solutions for the first time. These trends are consistent with the findings from IDC's Enterprise Mobility MaturityScape© study, which shows mature markets moving towards mobilizing business processes through apps and related services while enterprises in emerging Asian countries are still working on mobilizing their employees.

Public sector spending will continue to remain relevant in Asia/Pacific, with spending expected to reach nearly $25 billion by 2019 at a CAGR of 6%. This growth is partly driven by governments in the region looking to embrace Digital Transformation (DX) to better serve their citizens. Rapid urbanization and a still healthy GDP growth across emerging markets in Asia will drive mobility-related spending in the Infrastructure sector (telecoms and utilities) as more consumers look to connect online, making it the fastest growing vertical in the region at 7% CAGR through 2019.

"Mobility has had a significant influence in Asia, creating unique markets and business models that cater to a new generation of consumers embracing a mobile-first world. A great example of this trend is WeChat in China, which started as a messaging app rival to WhatsApp but has now transformed itself into a social commerce platform where consumers find and pay for services ranging from food to movies and even transportation,” said Avinash K. Sundaram, Research Manager for Enterprise Mobility at IDC Asia/Pacific.

“The next few years will be an inflection point for Mobility in Asia as many such new services and business models are created, making Asia the world's largest region for mobility," added Mr. Sundaram.

IDC's Worldwide Semiannual Mobility Spending Guide is designed to address the needs of technology organizations assessing the mobile opportunity by country, industry, and use case. The Worldwide Spending Guide provides subscribers with spending data on seven technologies across 19 industries, four company sizes, and 53 countries, with 14 countries represented in Asia Pacific. Unlike any other research in the industry, the comprehensive Spending Guide can help IT decision makers to clearly understand the industry-specific scope and direction of mobility spending today and over the next five years.