ABI Research

Wireless infrastructure equipment revenues continued their downward trend in the second quarter of 2012 reaching only $11.2 billion – a 4.7 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2012 and a 14 percent decrease from the same quarter one year ago. “Total revenues for wireless network equipment reported by the vendors was the lowest amount that we have seen since 3Q 2003; reaching a 35 quarter low,” says Nick Marshall, principal analyst, networks.

Mobile capital expenditure in Western Europe contracted 3.8 percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) even though mobile operators are building out coverage for 4G, and to a lesser extent enhancing capacity and coverage of their 3G networks. Not only was QoQ spend down but also, year-on-year (YoY) growth was down significantly (19 percent). “Overall capital expenditure for the region is expected to drop 12 percent to $14.4 billion for the year.

In monitoring the early progress of LTE, many industry insiders closely watch countries where mobile operators are aggressively deploying new networks, and offering commercial LTE devices and services. In South Korea, the United States, and Japan, the number of LTE subscribers surpassed that of WiMAX subscribers in 4Q11, 1Q12, and 2Q12, respectively. The findings are part of new market data from market intelligence firm ABI Research detailing the mobile broadband transition.

Companies, governments, and industries are increasingly turning to RFID as they look to modernize their operations, becoming more efficient and enabling quicker, more convenient service. The traditional uses of RFID for the identification of animals, people, and within the automotive sector are continuing to grow and are projected to increase by $2.8 billion from 2012 to 2017. However, ABI Research’s new RFID Market Tracker found that modernizing RFID applications will grow twice as fast with annual revenues derived from these jumping by $4.5 billion in the same timeframe.

ABI Research expects the market for small cell microwave backhaul equipment to grow to over $6.4 billion in 2017, up from a forecast $1.5 billion for 2012 which represents a 35% compound annual growth rate.

Tower top RF electronics, consisting of active antennas, remote radio heads, and tower mounted amplifiers, are important parts of modern macro base station hardware.

Tower mounted amplifiers have now become a common addition to most macro base station systems. They increase overall system performance and are now easily mounted and monitored. Tower mounted amplifiers can provide significant BTS performance improvement for a moderate investment. Lance Wilson, research director, mobile networks, notes, “The use of tower mounted amplifiers in wireless infrastructure base station systems represents one of the most cost effective ways of improving overall system performance.”  

Mobile handset semiconductors, including processors, RF, power management, and wireless connectivity, grew to more than $30 billion in 2011. The worldwide market generated more than $120 billion in revenue over the last five years and will generate more than $170 billion during the next five years.

LTE smartphones will top 65 million units in 2012, led by the anticipated LTE-enabled iPhone 5 and Samsung’s LTE smartphones. “Mobile wireless royalties for GSM, WCDMA, and LTE smartphones were just under $20 billion in 2011 but the increase to 65 million LTE smartphones will help push the 2012 royalty total higher,” states research director Philip Solis.