WiMAX’s growth has not been as early or as strong as many would have hoped several years ago says ABI Research in an new report.

According to report, the number of mobile WiMAX subscribers will approach 59 million in 2015. That represents a positive forecast in light of recent economic conditions.

Subscriber growth and base station shipments go hand in hand, and despite uncertainty among many operators as to which mobile 4G platform – WiMAX or TD-LTE – to choose, ABI Research’s forecasts see WiMAX base station shipments continuing to grow (albeit at a slowing pace) through the current 2015 forecast period.

Depending on the particular vendor, much of the hardware in a WiMAX base station may be re-usable for TD-LTE. Service providers adopting WiMAX but interested in upgrading their networks have been choosing those infrastructure vendors that can offer the options of staying with WiMAX (moving towards 802.16m) or moving towards TD-LTE, says research analyst Xavier Ortiz.

In terms of WiMAX base stations market share during 2009, Alvarion is the leader, followed quite closely by Samsung according to ABI Research. NSN (through acquisition of Motorola’s wireless networks business) and Huawei hold third and fourth place shares, followed by ZTE and NEC at fifth and sixth place.