‘One Major Outbreak Will Spark the Market’

The market for antivirus protection for mobile telecoms devices is growing, but it will take a major virus attack before operators and handset companies start to realize the potential market and offer services to protect the handsets and stored data of their subscribers. That is the finding from a new study from Visiongain: “Mobile Antivirus Market 2005-2010: Understanding the Threat of Potential Attacks.”

The study also found that worldwide spending on mobile virus protection is set to rise from $723 million in 2004 to $12.16 billion by 2007 as mobile operators, handset companies and end-users begin to appreciate the benefits that mobile virus protection has to offer and the value of insuring against virus attacks.

“Already we have seen some minor viruses start to attack handsets, such as Lasco.A,” commented report author Jean Pierre Aubertin, “but to date nothing has affected the industry on a major scale. We believe it is only a matter of time before a more serious virus targeted at smartphones strikes.”