Despite an 8 percent year on year decline in 2012, annual sales of mobile cellular broadband modems and embedded cellular PCs will rebound and grow to 250 million units by 2018, with LTE increasing by 187 million units between from 2012 and 2018, according to a new Strategy Analytics Mobile Workforce Strategies report, "LTE and Cellular Routers Will Stimulate Mobile Broadband Device Rebound: 5 Year Forecast and Analysis."

According to Strategy Analytics, the mobile broadband device recovery will begin in 2013, driven by the widespread emergence of LTE, cellular routers for USB modem replacements (for connecting multiple CE devices) and strong emerging market demand.

"The mobile broadband modem market struggled in 2012, with a decline in vendor shipments overall, as market leaders Huawei and ZTE were unable to maintain the continued growth of previous years as overall spending on modems decreased during the recession as users became more cautious over spending on data plans for modems. Discretionary spending tended to favor smartphones and bolt-on plans for tethering in a number of cases, or spending was withheld altogether," commented Andrew Brown, Executive Director of Enterprise Research at Strategy Analytics and author of the report.

"Nevertheless, the increasing dependence on persistent and ubiquitous connectivity, coupled with the widespread emergence of high-speed LTE networks, the multi-purpose nature of cellular hotspot routers that can connect up to 8 consumer electronics devices via Wi-Fi and the opportunities in developed and emerging market means there is plenty of life left in the mobile broadband devices market," Brown added.