Global LTE smartphone shipments will grow threefold to reach 275 million units in 2013, reports Strategy Analytics. 90.9 million units are expected to be shipped in 2012.  Company forecasts that it will be a record year for 4G technology.

Major countries driving LTE growth next year will include the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, China and South Korea, says Neil Shah, Senior Analyst at Strategy Analytics.

Multiple operators, such as Verizon Wireless, Everything Everywhere and NTT Docomo, are aggressively expanding their LTE networks. Key vendors leading the push into LTE smartphones will include Apple, Samsung, LG, Nokia, HTC, Motorola, Blackberry, Huawei, ZTE and Pantech.

132 commercial LTE networks have been launched in 59 countries to date. While 3GPP technology subscriptions are expected to hit 6 billion mark, Informa predicts that LTE subscriptions will surpass 1 billion by the year 2018.