According to a new ABI Research finding, an estimated 103 Million 4G LTE mobile devices were shipped in 2012. Apple’s iPhone 5 and Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones provided LTE-enabled handset shipments a substantial lift in 2012. LTE-enabled handset contribution was put to 91 million in 2012 and the balance came from other mobile devices.

Almost 95% of handsets shipped can be attributed to the North American and Asia-Pacific market. ABI Research also estimates that 3.35 million media tablets shipped with LTE.

ABI Research anticipates 785 LTE million subscribers by 2017, up from 58 million at the end of 2012, generating US$14 billion in annual service revenues.

In femtocell forecast update, ABI Research suggests that 2012 ended up with shipments reaching slightly above 2 million units. The shipments in the second half more than doubled from the first half, making up for some of the lost momentum. Airvana, Alcatel-Lucent, and NEC/Ubiquisys remained the top vendors in terms of shipments making up 78% of the total shipments in 2012.