The world's mobile worker population will pass the one billion mark this year and grow to nearly 1.2 billion people – more than a third of the world's workforce – by 2013. According to a new forecast from IDC, the most significant gains will be in the emerging economies of Asia/Pacific, where a strong economic recovery and new interest in unified communications will drive healthy growth in all aspects of mobility spending.

"Vast opportunities exist for bringing a variety of mobile technologies to the world's workforce," said Sean Ryan, research analyst, Mobile Enterprise Software. "Outside the United States and Japan, where mobile worker population penetration has essentially peaked, there are large worker populations that are still growing. Underserved mobile workers across all regions stand to benefit from the reach and flexibility offered by mobile solutions. While some barriers to adoption will still have to be overcome, the potential market for mobility solutions is enormous."

Among the key findings from this forecast are the following:

- The United States has the highest percentage of mobile workers in its workforce, with 72.2% of the workforce mobile in 2008. The U.S. will remain the most highly concentrated market for mobile workers with 75.5% of the workforce, or 119.7 million workers, being mobile in 2013.

- Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) represents the largest total number of mobile workers throughout the forecast, with 546.4 million mobile workers in 2008 growing to 734.5 million or 37.4% of the total workforce in 2013. At the end of the forecast, 62% of the world's mobile workforce will be based in the APeJ region.

- Western Europe's mobile workforce will enjoy a healthy compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6% over the forecast period to reach 129.5 million mobile workers (50.3% of the workforce) in 2013, surpassing the total number of mobile workers in the United States.

- Japan's mobile worker population will total 49.3 million in 2013, representing 74.5% of its total workforce. Like the U.S., this is essentially the sustainable limit of Japan's mobile worker penetration.

- The rest of the world (ROW), which is comprised of Canada and the emerging market countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMA), and Latin America, will see its mobile worker population grow to 153.2 million by 2013. As with APeJ, the low penetration of mobile workers in the total workforce (13.5%) signals significant growth potential in these markets.