The mobile hotspot router - produced by a number of manufacturers, including the Novatel and Huawei MiFi brands - is expected to sell 7.1 million units worldwide this year, according to ABI Research. These devices, which can connect several WiFi-enabled devices to a single mobile broadband subscription, will be worth an estimated $1 billion in the shops.
By 2016, increasing adoption of mobile hotspot routers will increase those figures to more than 60 million annual shipments and an approximate end-user revenue value exceeding $5 billion.
Jeff Orr, group director for mobile devices at ABI Research, said “The first products to reach the market in 2009 generally overshot the mass consumer population. 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. The mobile hotpot router is the only standalone device capable of being distributed to the end customer that reduces the number of subscribers while growing ARPU.”
[Mobile Hotspot Routers report]