According to Strategy Analytics, global long term evolution (LTE) smartphone shipments will number approximately 275 million units in 2013. The growth in the segment will be led by Apple, Samsung and LG.
Commenting on this, Neil Shah, senior analyst, Strategy Analytics, says, “Global LTE smartphone shipments are expected to triple from 90.9 million units in 2012 to 275.0 million in 2013. Next year, the major countries driving growth in the LTE segment will include the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, China and South Korea. Multiple operators, such as Verizon Wireless, Everything Everywhere and NTT DOCOMO, are aggressively expanding their LTE networks. The key vendors driving the growth of LTE smartphones include Apple, Samsung, LG, Nokia, HTC, Motorola, Blackberry, Huawei, ZTE and Pantech. And popular LTE smartphone models will include Apple’s iPhone 5 and Samsung’s Galaxy S3.”
Moreover, the analyst firm is of the opinion that in 2013, several operators and handset vendors will launching a number of LTE models across various countries. In this context, LTE is clearly becoming a high growth, high value market and the operators, service developer, component maker or device vendors cannot afford not to tap this segment.
According to the research firm, new players like Amazon and Mozilla are making efforts to establish themselves in the LTE smartphone market. However, these players face numerous challenges in a highly competitive LTE smartphone market. In order to make an impact in this space, new players will have to develop products which are strongly differentiated in areas such as design, price or services.
