The market for mobile security products to protect user's hand-held devices and identity will expand to almost a $5 billion by 2011, new research indicates.

Initially driven by the data hungry mobile business user who has seen the benefits of data services such as email, predominantly on their Blackberry devices, Alan Goode of Juniper Research said, we will see mobile security products go mainstream by late 2008/early 2009 resulting in a doubling of revenues from 2008 to 2010.

A number of factors are driving this growth, the firm stated, including the growing threat of mobile viruses, security risks of identify theft, and unauthorized access to corporate networks.

A number of solutions will be employed, the study suggests. Mobile biometric security will play a large role in saftey, contributing $268 million in revenue. These, among other security applications, the firm contends, will be installed on 227 million mobile phones by 2011.

Electronics Blackberry Security