The Open Mobile (News - Alert) Alliance (OMA), an international specifications setting body, has revealed that its mobile device management (DM) solution has touched 1.4 billion deployments.

The one billion deployment milestone was first predicted by industry analyst firm Ovum (News - Alert), stating in a 2010 report that OMA DM would reach one billion deployments by the end of 2011.

This new number, verified through OMA member company deployments, far exceeds the original prediction.

According to OMA officials, this achievement demonstrates the role of OMA DM standards in the ease and efficiency of managing mobile phones and connected devices for the global mobile industry.

"Over the last ten years, OMA has steadily added to our suite of DM specifications," said Mark Cataldo, chairman of the board for OMA and senior adviser for Orange France Telecom (News - Alert), in a statement.

Cataldo added that 1.4 billion deployments clearly demonstrate that device manufacturers, network operators and mobile device management software providers recognize the value of OMA DM specifications.

OMA's unprecedented success in this area proves the necessity of managing billions of devices in a standardized way, and positions OMA well for the billions of additional network-connected devices in the near future.

“OMA is already extending our device management expertise to the management of non-traditional devices, in particular in the area of M2M communication," Cataldo stated.

OMS pointed out that OMA's suite of DM specifications includes 21 mobile service enablers and more than 60 management objects that provide simple, reliable and cost-effective ways to deploy new applications and services with as little risk as possible.

"Currently, there are more than 5 billion devices, including handsets, PCs and other electronic devices connected to both mobile and IP-based networks," Musa Unmehopa, chairman of the OMA Technical Plenary and distinguished member of technical staff in the software, services and solutions group at Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) revealed.

As industry expectations are forecasting that 20 to 50 billion devices will be activated within the next 10 years, OMA DM remote managing and provisioning capabilities fulfill the requirements to support this explosion of new devices – including the various characteristics and capabilities that come with each one.