Shipments of consumer electronic devices with mobile broadband capability are expected to increase 55-fold between 2008 and 2014, according to a new report from ABI Research. The company says total worldwide shipments of these devices – including eBook readers, mobile digital cameras and camcorders, personal media players, personal navigation devices and mobile gaming devices – will reach 58 million in 2014.
Senior analyst Jeff Orr points out that embedding a mobile broadband modem in a device changes the retailer's business model dramatically because, unlike WiFi, each device then becomes tied to a particular operator’s service billing – and this unfamiliar aspect of the service is worrying for many sellers.