Overview of the Mobile Broadband Modem Market
The mobile broadband modem market may be set to change rapidly, with forces such as market maturation, open network strategies, potential for new competition and increasing device variety and advancement all conspiring to influence how customers use mobile broadband and at what price. Note that the term “mobile broadband” refers to the third-generation (3G) wide area wireless networks (WWANs) deployed by such U.S. mobile operators as Verizon Wireless and AT&T. These are the CDMA EV-DO and HSDPA networks.
Although consumer mobile broadband applications like music, games and video grab many of the headlines, much of the growth and maturation in wireless data has been driven by business users. Those users are, for the most part, the so-called “road warrior” business travelers, and to a lesser extent everyday mobile workers whose jobs take them away from a desk and into the field.
Many of these mobile professionals use devices that work with laptop computers to encourage long-duration Internet access over WWANs. Those devices include:
PCMCIA and ExpressCard network access cards,
USB modems,
Embedded modems in laptop computers, and
Tethered handsets
Note that this report focuses on the devices represented by the first three bullets only. Essentially, these devices function just like cable and DSL modems by providing users with comparable upload/download speeds wherever they might be. This, of course, is one of main advantages mobile broadband has over WiFi.
The vendor partners that mobile carriers use to supply most of their mobile broadband access devices include the usual suspects – Sierra Wireless and Novatel Wireless – as well as other names such as Sony Ericsson, Option, Kyocera, Huawei, Audiovox and Pantech. Some of these carriers also have struck partnerships with laptop makers such as Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba, Panasonic, OQO and Sony to provide mobile broadband access through embedded laptop modems.
Gobi, the hybrid embedded modem and chipset developed by Qualcomm to allow roaming across multiple kinds of networks (CDMA-based and GSM-based), has not yet had a strong impact on the market. This is because the chipset is not commercially available until later in 2Q08. Novatel Wireless and Option have both announced that they will support the Gobi chipset. Sierra Wireless has not yet made a similar announcement. Dell has said it will begin making laptops with Gobi included. HP, Lenovo and Panasonic have also announced intentions to sell at least one line of Gobi-embedded laptops.
This report provides an overview of the various extant mobile broadband modems, the pricing and service options from U.S. mobile operators and looks ahead to future growth drivers. It also provides a forecast for the uptake of device usage in the U.S.
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