One billion mobile workers by the end of 2010

Over one billion people will be mobile workers by the end of this year, according to a forecast from ABI Research.

The global market intelligence firm also predicted that the mobile worker population will reach almost 1.2 billion by 2013 - over one-third of the global workforce.

Sean Ryan, mobile enterprise software research analyst at IDC, said: "Vast opportunities exist for bringing a variety of mobile technologies to the world's workforce."

This projected growth of the mobile workforce could potentially see adoption of IP telephony solutions, particularly mobile VoIP solutions, increase, due to the technology's portability.

"While some barriers to adoption will still have to be overcome, the potential market for mobility solutions is enormous," Mr Ryan added.

ABI Research expects over half of Western Europe's workforce to be mobile by 2013, with numbers reaching 129.5 million, surpassing those of the US.

VoIP Phones have progressed further in the consumer market than the business market, TMCnet said recently.

This is despite the technology being considered more important to enterprises than domestic users by VoIP provider developers, according to the communications and technology community.