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The African cellular market is very much pulling in the subscribers. In 3Q-2012, the 54 countries and 1.08 billion people have accumulated 821 million subscriptions, up 16.9% year-on-year, resulting in a cellular subscription penetration of 76.4%. In the first quarter of 2013, cellular penetration will eclipse 80%. Given the fact that a significant percentage of prepaid users maintain more than one active prepaid subscription to minimize interconnection charges, there is still subscriber growth to be had.
Although 2012 turned out to be an off year for RF power amplifiers and devices for wireless infrastructure the market still held its own. The current year should be viewed as a breathing space before both segments resume stable and moderate growth after an explosive 2011.
In 2012 a major milestone has been reached for the Wi-Fi market: over 5 billion Wi-Fi enabled devices have been shipped in the technologies lifetime. Recent explosive growth has been largely driven by the smartphone and laptop markets but future success will be dependent on Wi-Fi penetration into newer markets such as connected home and automotive devices.
Apple’s iPhone 5 and Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones have provided LTE-enabled handset shipments a substantial lift in 2012 – even if it has not necessarily assisted the 4G mobile operators with “each and every” LTE handset sold.
While the femtocell market struggled in the first half of 2012, the market has bounced back in the second half of the year. ABI Research’s latest femtocell forecast update suggests that 2012 ended up with shipments reaching slightly above 2 million units. The shipments in the second half more than doubled from the first half, making up for some of the lost momentum.
Base station expenditures in Q3 2012 in the Asia-Pacific region at $7.6 billion, or more than half of the total market, continued to be more than 4 times higher than in Western Europe or North America, and grew 50 percent compared to the year ago quarter, while North America spending grew 27 percent year-on-year in Q3 2012.
Aeris Communications, which owns and operates the only cellular network designed exclusively for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, announced the addition of Mohsen Mohseninia as the vice president, market development for Europe. Mohseninia brings more than 18 years’ experience to the role, serving most recently as the head of the M2M business in the UK for Logica as well as being a leading member of the global M2M leadership team responsible for development of strategy and market development.
Whether the Apple smart watch rumor is true or not, the GPS fitness watch market is set to reach $1.07 billion in 2013, according to ABI Research’s latest quarterly “GPS & GNSS” Market Data which forecasts fitness watches split by price tier.
Leading small cell systems vendor and manufacturer ip.access confirmed it had become the first 3G small cell provider to ship one million residential units.
China-based manufacturers of cellphones and tablets in 2012 more than doubled their share of purchases of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) motion sensors, reflecting the rising prominence of the companies in the global market, according to an IHS iSuppli MEMS Topical Report from information and analytics provider IHS.
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