According to market research firm Infonetics Research, China is not looking at playing a small role in the LTE smartphone revolution taking place the world over.
Freshly released excerpts from the research firm’s 1st quarter 2014 report exploring the mobile market points to China’s increasing interest and ballooning stake in 4G LTE.
“The tremendous LTE network build taking place in China is going to result in a significant upside for LTE-enabled smartphones and tablets. Specifically, TDD-LTE devices are poised to be the world’s fastest-growing segment as the Chinese market joins the LTE smartphone revolution,” explains Godfrey Chua, directing analyst for M2M and The Internet of Things at Infonetics Research.
Report highlights shared by Chua include:
- The hangover from the holiday season impacted the usually-dynamic FDD-LTE smartphone segment in 1Q14, with revenue dipping 14% quarter-over-quarter, to $43 billion
- The only smartphone technologies to grow sequentially in 1Q14 were TD-SCDMA and TDD-LTE
- In 1Q14, mobile router revenue grew 24% sequentially and from the year-ago 1st quarter
- Meanwhile, mobile e-reader sales nose-dived 46% in 1Q14 from a year ago
- In the USB card segment, FDD-LTE cards made up 44% of revenue, overtaking W CDMA
- Lower-cost, entry-level devices based on W-CDMA are growing in popularity, sparked by a determined push by Chinese OEMs keen to grab market share
- On the vendor front, the acquisition of Motorola by Lenovo positions the company among the tier of top players (Apple, Huawei, LG, Nokia, Samsung, Sony)
- TDD-LTE embedded tablets are forecast by Infonetics to grow at a 155% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2013 to 2018
