According to ABI Research, cellular and mobile broadband PC modem shipments grew more than 55% in 2009, surpassing 72 million units shipped. A year before, a total of 46.4 million such modems — including USB and PC Card modems, as well as wireless routers — shipped.
The research company’s analyst Jeff Orr said that the USB modems continue to flourish. “They remain amazingly popular. 2009 was actually a good year considering we were in a recession: there was somewhat surprising year-over-year growth in both shipments and revenue. And at the end of 2009 there was a surge of consumer adoption. Business adoption was less robust,” he added.
The reasons for the popularity of USB modems are found in their low cost, flexibility and portability, as well as subsidies offered by carriers.
Among the companies making these devices, Huawei is leading by a significant margin. Last year, the Chinese company extended its market share of all PC modems and routers to almost 50%, while supplying 54.3% of all USB modems.
PC cards don’t have that luck and they continue to decline in favor of USB. ABI Research expects that except for a few specialized vertical markets they will largely disappear by 2013.
As for the 3G-enabled routers, Novatel’s MiFi may be an interesting product, but ABI believes all such devices don’t have a clear future. Many people already own several WiFi-enabled devices, but they rarely want to use them all simultaneously, away from home.
Finally, in terms of embedded modems, ABI believes their shipments will surpass USB modems at some point in 2016.
And you can get additional information on ABI’s report titled “Cellular and Mobile Broadband PC Modem Market Data” from their website.