With strong growth in the use of push email, the potential of mobile technology is now being assessed for its ability to improve processes and productivity across the operational spectrum in a broad range of industries.

"Push email is becoming a corporate standard," said Barry Kong, executive VP of commercial sales, PCCW. "Not so long there was only one push email platform available, but now we see more choice in the market with Windows Mobile and other competitors taking on BlackBerry."

But having ubiquitous email on handhelds is far from being pervasive. According to Norm Lo, VP, Asia Pacific, Research in Motion (RIM), there are about six million BlackBerry end-users worldwide at the moment. "That's just a drop in the bucket," he said, "but we're already seeing demand in Hong Kong for a broader range of applications to create complete mobile solutions."

Sophisticated market

Indeed the SAR stands out as being one of the most sophisticated enterprise mobility markets in Asia/Pacific ex-Japan according to IDC. "We peg it at the same level as Australia and more advanced than the rest of the region," said Shalini Verma, IDC's senior market analyst, Asia/Pacific Telecommunications Research. "Push email penetration is relatively high, field forces and sales force applications are being deployed and there's demand for vertical-industry solutions which we regard as being in the third phase of market development."