Infonetics Research (www.infonetics.com) says global smartphone market totaled $247 billion in 2012, up 51% from 2011 — and that the number of LTE smartphones increased by 151%.

Owing to the introduction of the iPhone 5, Apple regained its lead in smartphone revenue market share in 4Q12 with 37%. It was followed by Samsung with 29%; Samsung maintains its lead in smartphone unit share.

Sales of tablets reached US$42 billion worldwide in 2012, jumping 281% over 2011. In 2012, shipments of standalone USB mobile broadband cards grew steadily, driven by W-CDMA shipments in developing countries and LTE growth in developed markets

Meanwhile, embedded cards declined as the more functional tablet segment overshadowed embedded PCs and mobile internet devices (MIDs) Infonetics expects the number of global mobile broadband subscribers (phone and PC) to grow from 1.2 billion in 2012 to close to 3 billion by 2017.