According to new research from CompassIntelligence.com, businesses in the U.S. will spend roughly $11.6 billion on mobile applications by 2012.

This year U.S. businesses are expected to spend an estimated $4.9 billion on mobile applications. These applications include mobile and wireless-based custom-coded and packaged applications, including productivity, contact management, GPS/Navigation, Email, security, file sharing, collaboration and others.

This market is poised for double-digit annual growth over the next 5 years, driven by the growth in remote and telecommuting employees, the movement in "Open Mobile Devices," and the explosion of new and emerging free and fee-based mobile applications available for download. Apple and Google are both leading vendors in promoting this last driving trend and this is expected to open up a whole new world of business access and productivity over the next decade.

This research is part of Compass Intelligence's Applications and Business Wireless research. A few highlights of our mobile application research are shown below:

- The highly mobile Healthcare industry is expected to spend an estimated $1.1 billion on mobile applications by 2012, although the Government and Services industries are expected to be the top spenders on mobile applications.

- Roughly $6.3 billion will be spent on mobile applications by the Small and Mid-sized business market by 2012.

- Based on a Compass Intelligence recent survey of 1300+ IT-decision makers, Collaboration (Shared Calendars, contacts), Business or Company Instant Messaging, CRM, and applications specific to the company or industry ranked among the top applications planned to be rolled out to employees on mobile devices within the next 6 months.