I've already called 2012 a lot of things so far, including the year of Apple and the year of the quad-core mobile processor. Well, we might as well add another to the list: the year of 4G LTE.
To be clear, the two largest domestic wireless carriers have already launched their 4G LTE networks. Verizon
Then again, NVIDIA also technically kicked off the quad-core mobile CPU migration late last year, when its Tegra 3 landed in November. However, this year is when these two respective technologies promise to see major acceleration in adoption.
According to a new report from Strategy Analytics, worldwide LTE phone shipments are set to explode by nearly tenfold this year to 67 million units. A mere 6.8 million LTE-capable units were sold last year, but even with the hefty growth, LTE is expected to comprise just 10% of the total smartphone market. The researcher believes that there will be a total of roughly 650 million smartphones shipped throughout 2012.
Apple
This is clearly great news for Qualcomm
Even when Qualcomm isn't providing the baseband chip itself, it still collects royalties on 4G technology thanks to its broad patent portfolio, although it collects less on 4G than it does on 3G.
While the respective migrations toward quad-core mobile processors and 4G LTE was already under way coming into this year, 2012 will be the year where they really take off.
This adds even more evidence to the strong growth opportunities in mobile component plays, and you can get a head start on the mobile revolution by checking out this special free report on 3 Hidden Winners of the iPhone, iPad, and Android Revolution. The report even details one company mentioned in this article. It's 100% free.