Mobile business collaboration, productivity and process apps “went mobile in a big way in 2012”, according to research from Strategy Analytics.

It said that revenue from mobile business apps reached $25 billion last year, and that in 2013 more than 200 million workers will be using these products.

In a statement, it noted: “Revenue associated with mobile workers using enterprise business apps on mobile devices is expected to nearly double over the next five years as a result of hundreds of millions of mobile workers using a growing number of mobile business applications.”

Strategy Analytics said that the consumer mobile experience has taught mobile workers to “expect, even demand” access to information and applications from anywhere.

“Mobile workers have moved beyond just mobile email and messaging to include other collaboration apps such as conferencing, productivity apps such as content authoring, and business process apps such as CRM and even ERP,” Mark Levitt, director of business cloud strategies, said.

The company also noted that growth in secure application distribution through mobile devices and application management and enterprise app stores is “helping to allay security fears and ensure compliance”.