Boston, MA - June 14, 2012 - Sales of mobile broadband devices, including cellular USB modems, mobile hotspot devices, PC cards, and embedded PC modems, grew by an impressive 15 percent in 2011, after several years of strong growth. This increase was driven by a strong desire for ubiquitous connectivity, emerging LTE networks and sales of tablets and other CE devices, according the new Strategy Analytics report, "Mobile Broadband Devices: OEM Competitive Market Analysis Shipments and Revenue for Embedded and External Modems."

Highlights from the report include:

• Mobile broadband device sales reached 112 million units in 2011, up 15 percent over 2011.  Highly competitive pricing driven by the major Chinese OEMs resulted in significantly lower Average Selling Prices (ASP) in 2011.
• Large Chinese vendors, Huawei and ZTE, continued to dominate the overall market in 2011, increasing their combined market share to more than 80 percent in 2011.
• Global cellular hotspot routers provided major growth opportunities for top OEMs, including Huawei, Novatel Wireless and ZTE, especially in the United States.

"The simultaneous success of tablet sales and affordable data plan offerings on high-speed carrier networks, along with user desire for ubiquitous connectivity, drove a massive 96 percent 2011 growth in cellular mobile hotspots," said Andrew Brown, Director Enterprise Research at Strategy Analytics. "Strategy Analytics expects to see the mobile hotspot market continue on this growth trajectory to comprise a fifth of all external modem shipments by the end of 2012."