We have just completed two surveys on mobile messaging - one with IT decision makers and the other with end users - and will be publishing a report on our findings shortly.

For the North American portion of the end user survey, we asked a number of questions about how, where and when mobile e-mail is used. We found that nearly one-half of users check their mobile e-mail device more than 10 times each day while they’re at work. Even more users check their mobile e-mail over the weekend this frequently. However, only slightly more than one-third of users check mobile e-mail more than 10 times after work during evening hours. That said, 94% of users check mobile e-mail at least once during evening hours after work.

There are a couple of important takeaways from these findings. First, mobile e-mail use is growing and, among those who use it for work-related purposes, its use is significant. The fact that the overwhelming majority of mobile users frequently check e-mail on their device at work and at home is testament to the critical nature of e-mail for most mobile users. While a handful of users have become “CrackBerry” addicts, mobile e-mail fills a critical role for users who are often away from their desk or away from the office.

Second, continuity of mobile e-mail capabilities is becoming increasingly critical. While desktop e-mail must remain up and running as close to 24/7 as possible, availability of mobile e-mail is even more important for a couple of reasons. First, mobile users tend to be higher profile individuals than the average e-mail user – IT tends to jump a bit higher when the CEO complains that e-mail is down than when a clerical staff member calls with the same problem, for example. Second, mobile e-mail users are often more sensitive to outages because they have tighter windows in which to check e-mail – between meetings when traveling, between the time when they find their seat on the plane and the announcement comes to shut off all electronic devices, and so forth.

Mobile messaging is rapidly becoming a much more important consideration for IT managers than it was even a year ago. As a result, solutions that can ensure the availability of mobile e-mail will become much more important, as well.

Michael Osterman is principal analyst of Osterman Research.