V E N D O R P R O F I L E
M o b i l e I r o n P r i v a t e V e n d o r W a t c h l i s t P r o f i l e :
A N e w P a r a d i g m f o r M o b i l e D e v i c e M a n a g e m e n t
Sean Ryan Stacy K. Crook
I D C O P I N I O N
MobileIron is a newer entrant into the enterprise mobile device management (MDM) space. It is a VC-backed start-up seeking to solve the increasingly important problem of expansion of mobile device usage in the enterprise. MDM consists of provisioning, configuring, managing, updating, enforcing policy, and securing access to/from the mobile device (typically smartphones). The MDM market consists of mobility companies (RIM, Sybase, etc.), large IT systems management vendors (IBM, HP, CA, etc.), and pure-play MDM vendors. Adjacent market players are increasingly getting into this space as well. Examples include telecom expense management provider Tangoe (acquired InterNoded), mobile security provider Trust Digital, and mobile service management vendor Zenprise (has some MDM components). We believe MobileIron is a company to watch because:
The company has developed a solution with unique attributes such as granular management of files and apps that lends itself to supporting both corporate-liable and individual-liable devices. It does this across all of the leading mobile OS platforms (BlackBerry, iPhone, Symbian, Windows Mobile, limited support for webOS, and support coming for Android). It provides cost control measures that can be enforced to, for instance, turn off data while roaming. It also has an enterprise application storefront. It has a robust set of features pertaining to management, security, and cost control at a very competitive price either as a cloud-based delivery model or as an on-premise. Last, it has a unique architecture that simplifies management and relies on servers rather than the device for the heavy lifting during the update/change process.
The company has venture backing from well-respected VC firms, with $20 million invested to date. It is growing rapidly and is recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in the IT sector today. It is building a strong customer base of recognized brands and is increasing the size of its deployments.
The MDM market has experienced only marginal growth over the years, forcing some larger players such as Nokia to exit the market. However, this market is now poised for growth due to the expansion of smartphone shipments to businesses and consumers along with growth in mobile applications. The recent trend of individuals bringing a variety of converged mobile devices (smartphones) into the enterprise is contributing toward the enterprise need to control access while still allowing employees to be productive with the devices of their choice.
I N T H I S V E N D O R P R O F I L E
This IDC Vendor Profile analyzes MobileIron, a company playing in the mobile device management market, and reviews key success factors: market potential, technology/solution, corporate strategy, force multipliers, and customers. Leveraging IDC's expert understanding of the competitive landscape and future outlook, this document highlights company and market information tailored to the investment professional's needs.
S I T U A T I O N O V E R V I E W
MobileIron brings a compelling offering that addresses the dynamics of today's market for enterprise mobility, which have shifted tremendously and have made it challenging for older MDM vendors to adapt quickly. Specifically, the MobileIron Virtual Smartphone platform addresses multiple OS platform support and granular management capabilities for both corporate-liable and individual-liable business users. It also offers features that can be used for enforcing policies to control costs. In addition, it has a mobile enterprise app storefront tied to its solution. It offers its products as hosted or on-premise at a compelling price point. It also has a unique architecture that stores an image of the device on corporate servers with changes taking place there, and then it syncs with the device image.
C o m p a n y O v e r v i e w
MobileIron, based in Mountain View, California, plays in the mobile device management market. Company details are provided in Table 1.
T A B L E 1
M o b i l e I r o n C o m p a n y S n a p s h o t
Category Details
Functional and secondary markets Mobile device management
Founding year 2007
Number of employees 60
Number of customers 50
Company location Mountain View, California
Web site www.mobileiron.com
Funding initiatives Recently received Series B funding
Investors Sequoia Capital, NVP, Storm Ventures, Big Basin Partners LP Sales channels 50/50 direct/indirect, moving toward 80% through channel
Revenue estimate $10 million
Figure 1 shows the Watch Factor scores for MobileIron versus the Watch Factor average scores for all companies ranked by the Private Vendor Watch Service in the applicable market at the time of publication. The sections that follow detail the reasons for those scores.
F I G U R E 1
M o b i l e I r o n W a t c h F a c t o r S c o r e V e r s u s W a t c h F a c t o r A v e r a g e S c o r e
Notes:
The Watch Factor average score reflects the average score for all private companies scored by the Private Vendor Watch Service at the time of publication.
Scores are based on a scale of 1–4, where 1 = weak and 4 = strong. Source: IDC, 2010
I D C W a t c h F a c t o r S c o r e s
IDC Watch Factor scores measure private companies based on a set of five defined success factors. Each of the five key success factors is made up of detailed subquestions, which are assigned a value from 1 (weak) to 4 (strong). The average of the subcategories is then applied as the overall score for each category:
Market potential:Market growth potential, strength of competition, and current stage of market (early adopters versus late majority)
Technology/solution: Level of differentiation, disruptive capability, and scalability
Corporate strategy: Go-to-market strategy, management pedigree, and financial status (running on venture capital with insignificant revenue versus self-sustaining and not seeking additional rounds of funding)
Force multipliers: Current partnerships/certifications, additional partnerships likely within the next two years, and channel/sales strategy
Customers: Number of existing customers, quality of existing customer base, geographic reach, and size of addressable market in the coming years given the vendor's current capabilities
M a r k e t P o t e n t i a l
MarketThe market for enterprise mobile device management accounted for around $265 million in sales for 2009 and will grow to $405 million in shipments, a five-year CAGR of 9.2%. (IDC will be revisiting this forecast in 2Q10.) This market will return to double-digit year-over-year growth toward the end of 2013, driven by overall growth in both corporate-liable and individual-liable business use converged mobile devices (smartphones). Furthermore, the long-term reality of multiple OS platforms and multiple mobile applications is a significant driver in the need for MDM. Combine this with the enterprise need to control access, enforce policy, ensure security, and remain in compliance with regulations, and the value of having a robust MDM solution is clear. The growing complexity of mobile enterprise software is an opportunity for MDM vendors.
MobileIron is entering the market later than other MDM vendors that have been in the market several years longer. This is a disadvantage in that others have established customer bases and have had more time to develop their solutions and intellectual property. However, the advantage for MobileIron is that it is entering the market as this complexity has emerged and is poised to drive stronger market growth. It has developed its solution, from its inception, with these market dynamics in mind, while established players have had to retrofit their solutions.
IDC estimates that MobileIron's revenue is around $10 million and that the company is growing sales at a healthy growth rate, with size of deployments increasing. MobileIron received $11 million in 2009 and $8.8 million in 2008.
MobileIron has some unique attributes to its MDM solution — robust capabilities across the leading enterprise OS platforms and a compelling price point — and is quickly establishing market credibility. We expect MobileIron to grow significantly faster than the overall market.
Market Disruption
The market for mobile device management has had to evolve with a quickly changing landscape, meaning the vendors that had first mover advantage have had to evolve to support new OS platforms and shifting needs of enterprises in how they secure and manage mobile devices. However, new disrupters are entering the MDM space as well, primarily from adjacent markets such as mobile services management (MSM), mobile security, and telecom expense management (TEM).
Competitive Landscape
Sybase is the market leader for MDM, followed by Microsoft and IBM. With BES 5.0, RIM now meets IDC's definition for MDM, making it the default leader in the market, though for single OS platform support. The market can be segmented into three types of players: large systems management vendors (IBM, HP, BMC, CA, Symantec, Novell, Avocent, etc.), mobility companies (RIM, Sybase, Excitor, etc.), and mobile device management pure-plays (Odyssey Software, SOTI, B2M Solutions, Perlego, and Wavelink). MobileIron falls in this final category.
Adjacent market players such as BoxTone and Zenprise, originally mobile services management providers for the BlackBerry infrastructure, have added some MDM capabilities and multi-OS platform support. Tangoe, a leading telecom expense management provider, acquired InterNoded, a pure-play MDM provider. Mass-market MDM players, such as Mformation, are converging on this market as well, providing carrier-hosted versions — this has had only marginal success to date since the market requirements are so different. Mobile middleware providers such as Antenna Software and Spring Wireless also offer MDM capabilities, though they market or sell these not as standalone offerings but rather as value-add to their mobile enterprise application platforms.
M&A
This market has a history of M&A. Symantec acquired Altiris and HP acquired Bitfone (and has since exited the enterprise MDM space). Nokia acquired Intellisync (and has since exited the market). TEM provider Tangoe purchased InterNoded, a pure-play MDM vendor. Good Technology has just purchased CloudSync, an upstart cloud-based MDM player. Because of current market dynamics driving toward the increased importance of cross-platform MDM and lower company valuations due to current economic conditions, IDC expects more acquisitions to take place in 2010 and 2011. In more detail:
Large IT systems management vendors and device OEMs have purchased and spun off MDM players over the years. Vendors like Nokia are likely to avoid this route again, while others like Samsung that are making a new push into the enterprise may consider moving beyond their current alliances toward acquisition. Adjacent market players in mobile middleware, TEM, MSM, remote access, and mobile security are all ripe for M&A activity with MDM vendors.
Pure-play cross-platform MDM providers such as MobileIron, Odyssey Software, SOTI, and Perlego, as well as some of the smaller mobility companies such as Excitor, are potential candidates for acquisition.
T A B L E 2
M o b i l e D e v i c e M a n a g e m e n t M & A D e a l s
Date Acquirer Target Company Deal Value Specific Market/Solution Type January 2010 Good Technology CloudSync Not disclosed Cloud-based MDM
February 2009 Visto Good Technology Not disclosed Enterprise mobility platform January 2009 Tangoe InterNoded Not disclosed MDM
February 2007 HP Bitfone Not disclosed MDM
November 2005 Nokia Intellisync $430 million MDM
April 2007 Symantec Altiris $830 million MDM
May 2010 McAfee Trust Digital Not disclosed MDM/mobile security May 2010 SAP Sybase $5.8 billion Mobile platform/MDM Source: IDC, 2010
T e c h n o l o g y / S o l u t i o n
MobileIron Virtual Smartphone Platform
MobileIron Virtual Smartphone platform provides data protection across multiple mobile OS platforms, including BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iPhone (adherent to Apple SDK), Symbian, and Palm webOS (asset management and ActiveSync-enabled security), with Android support coming soon. In more detail:
MobileIron Virtual Smartphone provides IT departments with the ability to enforce policy across a variety of mobile OS platforms and mobile worker types to remain in compliance, safeguard corporate data and networks, and ensure mobile worker productivity.
IT is increasingly facing a growing number and variety of mobile devices accessing corporate networks and storing corporate data. To gain back control and keep costs down and meet employees half way by allowing workers to use such devices, IT must have tools to enforce policy and secure corporate data.
MobileIron has developed a solution with unique attributes such as federation between management of corporate-liable and individual-liable devices across all of the leading mobile OS platforms, as well as an enterprise application storefront. It has a robust set of features pertaining to management, security, and cost control at a very competitive price and a cloud-based delivery model.
C o r p o r a t e S t r a t e g y
LeadershipBob Tinker, CEO, previously led business development for Cisco's wireless business units. Prior to this, he was an early executive with wireless pioneer Airespace (acquired by Cisco in 2005). Suresh Batchu, cofounder and VP of engineering, spent time in leadership positions at Nortel Networks and Alteon Websystems. His first start-up was HolonTech Corp. Ajay Mishra, cofounder and chief customer officer, previously cofounded Airespace. Prior to this, he ran product management for Cisco Mobile Office Network (MNET), where he integrated the acquisitions of JetCell and Excio, built the product team, and launched MNET. He began his career at Motorola as part of the team that designed the first commercial GSM handset in 1990. There is no turnover in management to date.
The management team has start-up experience with Airespace as well as a few other companies. While the company does not boast serial entrepreneurs, its management team is made up of seasoned industry veterans (including one cofounder) that were closely involved in the start-up and subsequent sale of Airespace to Cisco.
Go-to-Market Strategy
MobileIron's go-to-market strategy is shifting its delivery model toward a greater reliance on channels for driving sales. This is a good move that will help it to more quickly expand its reach. It must do an effective job of educating channel partners and building incentives for them to sell MobileIron's solution. It will also have to manage channel conflict and select the right partners as it moves to support the shift in its sales model. MobileIron offers both subscription and perpetual licensing. Although the company itself does not offer its platform as a hosted service yet, some of its partners do.
Exit Strategy
Based on the history of its management team having successfully sold a previous company to a large technology vendor, it is likely that MobileIron would also be interested in being acquired by a company with synergistic offerings. Because the market is collapsing and mobile device management ultimately needs to be part of an overall mobility management and security solution, we would agree that this is the right strategy.
Key Acquisitions
The company has not made any acquisitions and is not likely to in the near term. Current Investors
MobileIron received about $11 million in Series B funding in August 2009, in addition to nearly $9 million it had received the previous year. It may be looking for additional investment in late 2010 or 2011 to fund continued market expansion.
T A B L E 3
M o b i l e I r o n D e t a i l e d F u n d i n g H i s t o r y Round Date Amount Investors
A March 2008 $8.8 million Northwest Venture Partners (NVP), Sequoia Capital, and Storm Ventures B August 17, 2009 $11 million Northwest Venture Partners (NVP), Sequoia Capital, and Storm Ventures
C NA NA NA
D NA NA NA
Source: IDC, 2010
F o r c e M u l t i p l i e r s
Partners Enterprise Mobile, AT&T, Mission Critical Wireless, Cloud Distribution (United Kingdom), Telonic (Germany), Vodafone, PAETEC, AEBS, Nomasis (Switzerland), ITSE (United Kingdom), Auvida (Germany), Euremis (Belgium), and Milcom (Denmark)
Partnership Opportunities
Mobile operators, large systems management vendors, Cisco, BoxTone, and mobile enterprise application platform companies
Channel/Sales Strategy
Currently, MobileIron's revenue in the United States is derived 50% from direct sales and 50% from the channel, but the company sees itself gaining a larger percentage of revenue from the channel in the future (up to 80% by the end of 2010). In Europe, the sales model is 100% through the channel.
C u s t o m e r s
Key Customers Windsor Foods
NETGEAR
Fenwick & West
Key Audiences
MobileIron's customer base is horizontal in nature but follows industries with larger mobile deployments. As such, MobileIron has customers in healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, retail, pharmaceuticals, high tech, and consumer goods. The company has been seeing increased interest from healthcare and pharmaceuticals but is not targeting any specific industries in its marketing efforts.
Geographic Reach
Currently, MobileIron is chiefly focused on its home (U.S.) market. It has, however, just recently opened a European headquarters in the Netherlands to expand its geographic footprint. It also has an office in India, but this is mainly for product development.
F U T U R E O U T L O O K
C h a l l e n g e s a n d O p p o r t u n i t i e s
ChallengesMobileIron lacks the size and scale of other competitors. Sybase has dominant market share and has forged distribution partnerships with Verizon, Orange, and other leading mobile operators. Adjacent players like BoxTone, Zenprise, and Tangoe pose a real threat as they encroach on the traditional boundaries of the MDM market to expand the discussion and the broader product portfolio that they can offer to customers.
Companies may use platform-specific MDM solutions, such as the BlackBerry Exchange Server or Apple's Configuration Utility, and simply find a way to aggregate all into a single-view console as part of their systems management tools. These are more limited options but are potential low-cost alternatives.
Opportunities
MDM solutions have been on the market for some time now, yet enterprises have not adopted the technology in a measure to keep up with deployments of mobile devices and applications. The proliferation of devices with multiple mobile OS platforms, combined with the growth of both corporate-liable and individual-liable users, has brought the need for MDM solutions to the forefront of the discussions taking place around enterprise mobility within organizations today.
In addition, opportunities for replacement exist in situations where vendors, such as Nokia and HP, have exited the market or where the existing MDM tool being used is not sufficient.
E S S E N T I A L G U I D A N C E
R e a s o n t o W a t c h
has a unique architecture that provides greater efficiency for syncing policy, configuration, and data stored on the device. Mobile Virtual Smartphone was built from the ground up with the dynamics of today's mobility market in mind and therefore does not have legacy issues that others face in terms of re-architecting their solutions. Furthermore, the MDM market is poised for growth because of the same dynamics of multiple OS platforms and the need to support both corporate-liable and individual-liable devices. MobileIron's focus on integrating cost control into its solution will help IT justify the investment for MDM. Last, it has the potential to open up APIs and allow SIs and other tech partners to build on top of Mobile Virtual Smartphone.
D i f f e r e n t i a t o r s
MobileIron has developed a solution with unique attributes such as federation between management of corporate-liable and individual-liable devices across all of the leading mobile OS platforms, as well as an enterprise application storefront. It has a robust set of features pertaining to management, security, and cost control (at a very competitive price) and a cloud-based delivery model.
It has venture backing from well-respected VC firms, with $20 million invested to date. It is growing rapidly and is recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in the IT sector today. It is building a strong customer base of recognized brands and is increasing the size of its deployments.
L E A R N M O R E
R e l a t e d R e s e a r c h
Worldwide Mobile Middleware 2009–2013 Forecast and 2008 Vendor Shares
(IDC #219186, July 2009)
Worldwide Mobile Device Management Enterprise 2009–2013 Forecast and 2008 Vendor Shares(IDC #218680, June 2009)
C o p y r i g h t N o t i c e
This IDC research document was published as part of an IDC continuous intelligence service, providing written research, analyst interactions, telebriefings, and conferences. Visit www.idc.com to learn more about IDC subscription and consulting services. To view a list of IDC offices worldwide, visit www.idc.com/offices. Please contact the IDC Hotline at 800.343.4952, ext. 7988 (or +1.508.988.7988) or sales@idc.com for information on applying the price of this document toward the purchase of an IDC service or for information on additional copies or Web rights. Copyright 2010 IDC. Reproduction is forbidden unless authorized. All rights reserved.
