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Revenue from mobile hotspots to balloon 500% over next five years

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 7:38PM EST
BGR

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Despite the proliferation of smartphones that include built-in mobile hotspot capabilities, the market for dedicated mobile hotspot routers like Novatel Wireless’s Mifi line of products is seen growing significantly over the next five years. According to a new report from market research and analysis firm ABI Research, 7.1 million dedicated mobile hotspot devices will ship in 2011 carrying an estimated end-user revenue value of $1 billion. In 2016, ABI expects annual shipments to reach 60 million units, representing more than $5 billion in end-user revenue value. Read on for more.

“The first products to reach the market in 2009 generally overshot the mass consumer population,” ABI Research analyst Jeff Orr said in a statement. “Products were very complex to set up and catered to an IT-managed remote workgroup environment, such as a construction site or field emergency response team.” Orr says that significant headway has been made across a number of markets thanks to the introduction of smaller devices, reduced complexity and a push from carriers looking to open new data revenue channels.

Mobile hotspot routers like Novatel’s Mifi lineup connect to cellular data networks and then share that data connection wirelessly with any Wi-Fi-enabled device. Novatel announced in October that it had shipped 3 million Mifi-branded mobile hotspots to date.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.