Larry Walsh of Channel Nomics

During the Super Bowl commercials, Samsung took a jab at Apple by showcasing the superiority of its Galaxy Note smartphone to a throng standing in line at what was presumably an Apple store for the release of yet another iPhone.

While Samsung enjoyed poking fun at Apple, there's an indisputable element of truth in the marketing message: Smartphones attract crowds.

According to Canalys, vendors such as Apple, Samsung and HTC shipped more than 488 million smartphones worldwide in 2011 - a 67 percent year-over-year increase. Apple was the undisputed leader, having sold more than 37 million units in the fourth quarter alone.

Surging iPhone sales were responsible for driving Apple's holiday sales quarter to $46.33 billion - a near-record for any corporation. But Apple had plenty of company in the fourth quarter, as it and competing vendors sold more than 159 million smartphones in the last three months of the year.

While PC sales returned to growth, increasing nearly 15 percent over 2010, the number is padded by the inclusion of tablets, which grew an astounding 274 percent.

The numbers are undeniable. Smartphone sales will continue to surge. Over the next three years, more than 1 trillion new smartphones - mostly Android- and Apple iOS-based - will enter service. Users continue to consolidate devices for personal and business functions. The expectation is companies will not only allow some smartphone and tablet access to networks and applications, but will fully support connectivity.

Solution providers tell Channelnomics their customers are already asking for mobile device management solutions to bring some order to the chaos. Vendors are racing to fill this void. A number of specialty software and cloud vendors are offering MDM applications and solutions. Security vendors, in particular, are playing off the increasing threats poised to mobile devices to bolster the value of their MDM applications. And network vendors are touting MDM capabilities similar to network access control solutions.

The sharp rise in smartphone sales will not only bring the opportunity for software management solutions, but also managed services. Many remote monitoring and management software vendors - including Kaseya and, most recently, Level Platforms - have extended the capabilities of their platforms to include support for common smartphones. Many businesses, particularly SMBs, will look to outsource mobile management needs.

What solution providers can't afford to overlook is the growing need for consultative and professional services related to mobile devices. Solution providers report fielding inquiries from customers looking for advice and support for creating policies, management strategies for regulatory compliance and help in understanding the legal framework associated with mobile devices.

Confounding businesses is a lack of understanding on where user device ownership ends and the corporate need to comply with government regulations and laws begins. For instance, what happens if the government needs to seize all devices - network and mobile - in a compliance issue? Do they get to take a device not owned by the company? Must the end user surrender some ownership rights for the convenience of connecting to the corporate network?

While businesses and end users marvel over the ever-increasing capabilities of smartphones and tablets, there's still plenty of technical and policy mystery surrounding these devices. And where there's mystery, there's margin. The smartphone era will prove exceedingly rich for solution providers that embrace the call of unraveling that mystery for their clients.