It will not be very long when India will have crossed the 250 mn mobile phone subscriber mark. Besides the fact that service providers and equipment vendors will both have great opportunities as well as challenges when tapping this market, we must not miss another big emerging phenomenon that is getting created.

Two hundred and fifty million mobile phone users also mean that we have that many number of people who are either part of a mobile workforce in large, medium and small organizations ranging from banks to courier companies to hospitals to steel manufacturing to insurance agents. These people have mobile phones ranging from entry-level instruments to high-end smart phones. They are increasingly looking at solutions that will empower them even when they are on the move.

Two hundred and fifty million mobile users also means that we have that many consumers of various products and services who can now be tapped irrespective of time, distance, and location. Marketing and sales heads are very clear that they would not like to miss this route to reach potential customers. The good thing is that many of these consumers also don't mind if they can do business transactions using this technology. And with the population of mobile users increasing at this pace, technology adoption trends and economies of scale for mobile commerce will only build up further.

Add to this the increasing number of laptops that are being purchased especially by people in the medium to high-income bracket. Last year between January and December 2007, over 18 lakh laptops were sold, and quite a few of them were Wi-Fi and data card enabled. Many of these people are actually carrying their entire office around, and use this product in lots of decision making, while they are mobile. The future will have a lot of mobility, clearly.

The big challenge before business leaders and CIOs who keep an eye on the future is how to make sure that their organization gears up on all fronts-to support their workforce to take faster and better decisions, and reach out to potential customers effectively. At a time when there is a plethora of communications and networking products and services available in the market, the challenge before those who have to take these technology decisions is going to be even tougher.

This is the time when service providers must actively go out in the market with solutions that will help enterprises ride this mobility wave that is building up. They will need to work closely with solution providers such as those dealing in unified communications, or the laptop vendors, for instance. Obviously the role of business unit heads and CXOs, such as those heading sales or customer support, will be crucial, and service providers must ensure that they are enrolled.