Small cell and femtocell market shipments is forecast to reach $5.98 billion by 2019, according to WinterGreen Research's report 'Small Cells and Femtocells: Market Shares, Strategy, and Forecasts'. A strong data usage trend is expected, spurred by the growth in the apps market, which is forecast to reach $236 trillion by 2019. Low cost small cell availability with easy connectivity options such as WiFi or Ethernet and the need for better indoor mobile coverage is expected to further drive the growth. Services providers are positioning various small cell and femtocell models to meet huge demand as the world moves to 8.5 billion smart phones in use by 2019 and trillions of interconnected sensors on the Internet of Things.
According to Susan Eustis, principal author of the report, "Small cell market growth is a result of various moves toward autonomous miniature base stations that are used as boxes to improve cell phone transmission, particularly smart phone signal transmission from everywhere."Source - Wintergreenresearch (Oct 29, 2013)