Mobile phone threats will boost security spending, say analysts

Threats to mobile phones are set to drive up revenues for security products to almost £2.5bn in the next five years, industry analysts have predicted.

A report from analyst firm Juniper Research said revenues from mobile security products, including antivirus software, data and file encryption and mobile identity management applications, would hit almost £2.5bn by 2011.

Report author Alan Goode said, “Initially driven by the data-hungry mobile business user who has seen the benefits of data services such as e-mail, predominantly on their Blackberry devices, we will see mobile security products go mainstream by late 2008 or early 2009, resulting in a doubling of revenues from 2008 to 2010."

The biggest market would be for secure mobile content products, with antivirus, antispam, antispyware and content filtering products accounting for 40% of the total mobile security market.

The report added that revenues from mobile data and file encryption products were expected to outstrip those for the PC encryption market by 2011, while the mobile identity and access management market would produce revenues of £700m.

Mobile phone thefts would continue to increase, despite initiatives by mobile operators and police, the Juniper report added.

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