10/28/2010 -- There's tumult aplenty in the mobile security client segment, thanks to unprecedented industry consolidation.

The shakeup has a determined Cisco Systems Inc. vying against strong competitors in Intel Corp., Juniper Networks Inc. and Symantec Corp., which have leveraged big name acquisitions to beef up their mobile security portfolios.

"The most interesting news in the mobile client security market right now is the heavy industry consolidation going on," noted Jeff Wilson, a principal analyst for security at Infonetics Research, in a statement. Intel's $7 billion acquisition of McAfee was a seismic move, but McAfee in its stead had previously acquired two important client security specialists -- Trust Digital and tenCube.

Nor is that all. "Juniper acquired SMobile and is diving headfirst into the enterprise mobile security market; McAfee picked up two enterprise-focused mobile security companies: Trust Digital and tenCube; and Symantec picked up GuardianEdge," he points out. "Consolidation will help drive strong growth in the mobile client security software market as larger vendors can put real marketing muscle behind the technology that they've acquired."

There's a lot at stake: for one thing, mobile security client revenues have been growing at a robust clip (16 percent, between Q1 and Q2 of this year); Infonetics is likewise projecting a 50 percent compound annual growth rate between 2009 and 2014. That's a big chunk of change. It perhaps explains (at least in part) why Intel was willing to pony up $7 billion for McAfee: in tandem with its acquisition announcement, for example, Intel specifically addressed the security needs of mobile clients and non-traditional endpoint devices.
--By Stephen Swoyer