Telecom Lead Asia: LTE phone shipments will reach 67
million units in 2012, due to rapid deployments of 4G technology.
According to Strategy Analytics,
in 2011, 6.8 million LTE-based mobile units were shipped globally. The research
firm expects that LTE phone shipments will increase tenfold to 67 million in
2012.
The firm expects that LTE phone shipments will be growing
at 885.3 percent on y-o-y basis.
According to a report by Signals and Systems Telecom, Asia
Pacific is set to account for 29 percent of LTE device shipments in 2012.
However, North America will be the largest region with 46
percent share. Having already witnessed over 0.2 million units shipments in
2011, European LTE device shipments are set to grow at a CAGR of 260 percent
over the next five years.
The study also revealed that Apple, Samsung, HTC, LG,
Nokia, Motorola, Pantech and Fujitsu will lead that growth surge of LTE phone
shipments.
Samsung,
LG, HTC, Motorola, Pantech and Fujitsu are the top 6 LTE 4G phone makers in the
world in Q4 2011.
In Q4 2011, around 4.1 million LTE phones were sold
globally. Samsung, LG and Pantech took a combined 68 percent of the global LTE
sales in Q4, according to Strategy Analytics.
For the full year of 2011, Samsung topped the global market with 2.6 million
units in LTE phone sales, followed by HTC with 2 million and LG with 1.1
million.
Major countries driving LTE growth this year will
include the United States, Japan and South Korea. Multiple operators, such as
Verizon Wireless, NTT Docomo and SK Telecom, are aggressively expanding their
LTE networks. Key vendors leading the push into LTE phones will include Apple,
Samsung, HTC, LG, Nokia, Motorola, Pantech and Fujitsu,” said Neil Shah,
analyst at Strategy Analytics.
Samsung Electronics sold 1.7 million units of LTE phones
in Q4 2011, with a market share of 41 percent.
LG Electronics sold about 800,000 units in Q4, with its market share of 20
percent exceeding the 17 percent of its Taiwanese rival HTC.
The mobile industry is entering a breakout year for 4G
LTE technology. Multiple operators and multiple phone vendors will be launching
dozens of LTE models across numerous countries worldwide. LTE has quickly
become a high-growth, high-value market that no operator, service developer,
device vendor or component maker can afford to ignore,” said Neil Mawston,
executive director at Strategy Analytics.
