NPD: Growth in Mobile Broadband May Push Greater Tablet Subsidies

The number of active mobile broadband devices in Americans’ hands will increase 50 percent to 34 million by year-end 2015, and two-thirds of them will be tablets, according to new market research from The NPD Group.

Today, tablets account for 40 percent of mobile broadband connections. Carriers will have to boost adoption of connected tablets as use of mobile hotspots and USB sticks decline. With the shift, the price of embedded cellular tablets should decline rapidly, according to NPD’s “Connected Intelligence Mobile Broadband Market Share and Forecast Report.”

“Tablets are the next subscriber battleground for the carriers,” NPD director, Connected Intelligence Brad Akyuz was quoted as saying. “The decline in ASPs [application service providers], coupled with the intensified pricing competition, will further boost connected tablet adoption in the coming years.