Cellular Modem Sales to Top 300 Million Units by 2017, Says Strategy Analytics

Market research firm, Strategy Analytics’ Mobile Workforce Strategies (MWS) service report “Mobile Broadband Devices: 5-Year Market Outlook on Embedded and External Modems,” predicts that sales of external modems will show a marked uplift due to widespread adoption of cellular hotspot routers. This study expects cellular modem sales to grow at a compound annual growth rate(CAGR) of 16 percent.

As this rate, sale of modem units are predicted to go from 150 million units in 2012 to 312 million units in 2017. By 2017, the Strategy Analytics study predicts that over 35 percent of external modems will be mobile hotspot routers, driven by growth in consumer electronics (CE) devices such as eBook readers, tablets and ultrabooks. According to Strategy Analytics, the ubiquity of Wi-Fi in devices has stimulated demand for cellular hotspot routers, a singular cellular appliance that can connect multiple Wi-Fi devices, requiring only one data subscription.

Key findings of the study show that in 2012, cellular modem sales will grow fastest in North America, at 69 percent year on year growth, followed by Asia Pacific at 34 percent. In addition, it indicates that the mobile broadband device installed base of USB modems, PC cards and embedded notebooks and netbooks will grow from 266 million units in 2012 to 688 million by 2017, and that LTE will comprise 48 percent of all cellular modem shipments by 2017.

In a statement,  Andrew Brown, director of Enterprise Research at Strategy Analytics, commented, “The cellular modem market will continue to show healthy growth through 2017 at 16 percent CAGR, driven by a need to connect multiple devices such as tablets, notebooks, netbooks, e-readers, ultrabooks and other CE devices.” He added, “The ability to connect five or more devices to mobile hotspot routers offers a major opportunity to make these devices a vital connectivity hub.” 

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