IDC Study Identifies 10 Emerging Wireless Players To Watch in 2006.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. -- The wireless services and applications space continues to be one of the most rapidly evolving areas of communications, content, and entertainment. Since the summer of 2002, when text messaging was just beginning to be discovered by the U.S. consumer market, the industry has

made dramatic leaps forward, to a point where live broadcast mobile television programming will potentially be available within a year. This IDC study discusses 10 smaller emerging wireless players that IDC analysts believe are worthy of highlighting to the broader wireless industry and that have the potential to make an impact in the larger wireless market.

The 10 wireless players to watch, as selected by IDC, are: Adamind, Cbeyond, Enpocket, Kargo, Kodiak, LimeLife, mFoundry, Mobilitec, Vercuity, and Visage Mobile. The companies chosen echo three broad themes for 2006: the growth of content markets and the consequent complexity of wireless content ecosystems; a pronounced need to remember that end-user experiences will have a profound impact on data adoption and ultimately customer loyalty; and the need to better serve the needs of business customers, especially small and medium-sized businesses.

The role that smaller companies are playing in driving the wireless markets continues to be one of the brightest stories of wireless and is set to continue into the future. The last 12 months have shown that the increasingly rapid evolution of the wireless ecosystem and marketplace continues to create many market opportunities for smaller companies that can effectively address issues in the multimedia, content, data, integration, application-enabler, and enterprise markets.

"Collectively, the outlook for these emerging wireless players is bright when set against the backdrop of the rapidly evolving wireless ecosystem and marketplace, evolving market strategies of larger wireless players, the entrance of new players such as MVNOs, and the overall trend of wireless becoming ever more central to ever more subscribers as the 'third screen' in their lives," said Scott Ellison, program director, Wireless and Mobile Communications at IDC.

This annual IDC study, Ten Emerging Wireless Players To Watch in 2006 (IDC #34934) identifies 10 smaller companies operating in the wireless services, content, and applications space that IDC's wireless services analysts collectively believe are worthy of highlighting to a broader industry audience and have the potential to have a market impact that is disproportionate to their current size.

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