This IDC study surveys a cross section of software as a service (SaaS)-based enterprise applications and on-demand, hosted mobile middleware platforms purpose built for connecting enterprise applications to converged mobile devices (CMDs, commonly referred to as smartphones). The emergence of cloud-based infrastructure offerings, and the myriad "as a service" intersection points emerging for delivering service-enabled software to business users, provides numerous strategic and tactical benefits for user firms, including IT de-capitalization, easy access to applications, business agility, and scalability.

"IDC believes that the mobile device clients, cloud-based mobility platforms, and services now emerging from SaaS applications vendors provide a template for what customers will choose in building, consuming, and paying for mobility applications," says Robert Mahowald, research director for SaaS and Cloud Services at IDC. "Furthermore," adds Sean Ryan, research analyst for Mobile Enterprise at IDC, "the mobile workforce is a growing and important segment of the workforce, one which accounted for 847.8 million workers globally in 2008. It is important to understand that the mobile workforce is not monolithic — enterprise requirements and the needs of these workers can vary greatly. To this end, corporations will be better served leveraging mobile cloud-based solutions in some cases, and on-premise solutions in other cases."