Dan Winterbottom, principal analyst at Informa, said that mobile phones can be used for a variety of services, including email and instant messaging.

Companies may also begin using “some of the more advanced things like external access to intranets or sales force databases that you might have in the office”, Mr Winterbottom explained.

DHL is among the companies already employing “sophisticated” methods of tracking goods using mobile data access, which could result in firms making “huge savings” in terms of shipping costs, he added.

Last year, O2 launched Apple’s iPhone in the UK, offering mobile data access to 7,500 wi-fi hotspots and enabling subscribers to browse the internet and email while “on the move”, uSwitch.com reported.

However, the firm noted that the tariffs available for the handset were not as competitive for minutes and texts as others on the market.

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