NEW YORK, USA: Mobility among U.S. SMBs (small and medium businesses or companies with up to 999 employees) has increased from just two years ago. Nearly half of small businesses (SBs – up to 99 employees) and nearly 9 in 10 medium businesses (MBs – up to 999 employees) now report having workers that travel at least 4 or 5 days per month for business.

This is according to a study by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI)-Partners, Inc. Not only has the number of mobile firms increased from 2006, but the intensity of their travel has increased significantly. Domestic travel has nearly doubled while international travel has increased five-fold among mobile SBs.

“Even though travel has increased in the past couple of years, firms will begin to reign in unnecessary travel in this economy and look to technology solutions, like conferencing, to pick up the slack,” says Chad Henry, New York-based analyst at AMI.

AMI sees mobile SMBs continuing to spend on products and services deemed critical even in current economic times. These include portable PCs, conferencing services, and smart phones–solutions that are typically very heavily used by sales and business development staff. “Our research shows while layoffs are on the rise, SMBs will hold on to their rainmakers and will continue to provide them with tools that help them deliver business,” said Henry.

While SMBs may put off upgrades and expand their PC utilization beyond the typical 3 - 4 year time period, many are increasingly replacing older desktop PCs with portable units, which AMI believes, will help keep portable spending growth in positive territory. Similarly, SMBs are transitioning from cell phones to smart phones to leverage data applications. “While outlays on cell phones will likely shrink with shrinking payrolls, spending on smart phones will continue to grow as mobile data access will enable agility and quicker response times – critical factors in today’s environment,” says Henry.

AMI estimates the market opportunity for SMB mobility-related solutions in the U.S. to be approximately $1.2 billion – including smartphone service & data plans, network firewall/VPN, smartphone/PDA equipment, and wireless LAN. These estimates exclude portable PCs and cellular phone equipment and service.

The US SMB mobility market, for these products and services, is expected to grow from $1.8 billion to $2.6 billion over the next 5 years, a CAGR of 7.6 percent. 2009 and 2010 will be the slowest growth periods with growth rates of 6 percent and 7 percent, respectively.