The new benchmark: $9 billion

Another week, another study of mobile applications, and the bar is now set at $9 billion.

According to research from Compass Intelligence LLC, businesses in the US will spend approximately $9 billion on mobile applications by 2011. This year alone, Compass forecasts American businesses to spend $3.8 billion on mobile applications, including productivity, Enterprise Resource Planning, Email, CRM, and security applications.

Compass sees the market as poised for double-digit annual growth into 2011 and primarily targeted to improve productivity and collaboration across businesses. Major trends in this industry, according to the company, include “growth in productivity-based applications, growth in sophisticated and business-oriented devices, and a major attraction to service providers to strengthen profit margins.”

Other tantalizing tidbits revealed by Compass include:

? The professional services and government industries are expected to be the two largest spenders on US mobile applications representing 37 percent and 22 percent, respectively, in 2007.

? The small business (representing 38 percent) and enterprise business (representing 42 percent) segments are expected to be the largest spenders on mobile applications from 2006-2011.

? US annual growth rates in this market range from 20 percent to 37 percent from 2006 to 2011.

? Major mobile applications include Email, SMS/text messaging, CRM, project management, collaboration and file sharing.