The market for business-focused mobile applications will more than double in the next five years, according to market research Strategy Analytics.

In its Global Mobile Enterprise Business Application Revenue Forecast 2011-2017 report, Strategy Analytics predicted that 200 million mobile workers will use at least one business-focused app this year. Over the following years, both the number of mobile workers using business apps and the number of apps available will grow rapidly.

The prediction is based on a survey of 1740 organisations in seven countries conducted last year.

The survey found that collaboration and productivity apps such as email and messaging are more widely than business apps such as sales force automation (SFA) and field support apps.

The report claims that employees now expect the applications they use for work to be available on their smartphones and tablets. According to Mark Levitt, director of business cloud strategies research at Strategy Analytics, this means that companies that build mobile business applications must deliver the kind of user experience that workers are used to from consumer apps.

"Transforming the business user experience to be more like the consumer user experience is not only doable with the right approach and commitment to change," Levitt told Information Age. "It is what business workers expect from mobile apps developed for smartphones and tablets."