Telecom Lead Asia: Huawei and ZTE are leading the mobile
broadband devices market in 2011.
Their pricing strategy is assisting these companies to
dominate the market.
The two Chinese telecom equipment vendors have more than
80 percent of the market share.
Sales of mobile broadband devices, including cellular USB
modems, mobile hotspot devices, PC cards, and embedded PC modems, grew 15
percent in 2011.
Desire for ubiquitous connectivity, emerging LTE networks
and sales of tablets and other CE devices contributed to the substantial
growth.
Mobile broadband device sales reached 112 million units
in 2011, up 15 percent over 2011. Competitive pricing driven by Chinese OEMs
resulted in significantly lower Average Selling Prices (ASP) in 2011.
Cellular hotspot routers, known as Mi-Fi, provided growth
opportunities for OEMs, including Huawei, Novatel and ZTE, especially in the
United States.
Strategy Analytics expects to see the mobile hotspot
market continue on this growth trajectory to comprise a fifth of all external
modem shipments by the end of 2012.
“The simultaneous success of tablet sales and
affordable data plan offerings on high-speed carrier networks, along with user
desire for ubiquitous connectivity, drove a massive 96 percent 2011 growth in
cellular mobile hotspots,” said Andrew Brown, director Enterprise Research
at Strategy Analytics.
