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The kinds of LTE (News - Alert) chips most in demand for mobile devices are changing over the next several years.

LTE Cat4 chips will be the most popular in 2016, with their market share then predicted to be 55 percent, according to ABI Research (News - Alert). On the other hand, Cat4 shipments were slightly over 42 million in 2013. Cat4, also known as second-generation LTE basebands, provide mobile users up to 150 Mbps in bandwidth.

But looking ahead, Cat6 chips will provide speeds of up to 300 Mbps, ABI Research said. And cumulative shipments of Cat6 chips for smartphones will exceed 700 million by the end of 2019. Cat6 chips will be found in close to 3.6 million mobile devices by the end of this year, ABI Research further predicts.

“Mobile devices will increasingly accommodate high-bandwidth modems, notably Cat6, to take advantage of the network capacity,” ABI said in a statement.

“Shipments of this category of chips will grow steadily within the next five years to exceed 347 million by 2019, which represents 24 percent from the total LTE market,” the ABI statement adds.

On the other hand, chips with downlink speeds higher than 300Mbps will not appear in commercial devices until 2017, the firm predicts. Share will be “small” for the “foreseeable future.”

There are some current limitations regarding commercial networks and the Cat6 chips. “Although a number of chipset suppliers have announced their Cat6 basebands, mobile operators are not yet launching commercial networks that will allow users to enjoy mobile broadband speeds exceeding 150Mbps,” Malik Saadi, practice director at ABI Research, said in a statement. Saadi cited an exception, SK Telecom (News - Alert), which has an LTE-advanced service, with speeds up to 225 Mbps.

As of now, ABI says Qualcomm is the market leader in supplying LTE chips for mobile devices. “But with the emergence of Cat6, some specific competitors could challenge Qualcomm in this market space,” ABI cautions.

In addition, Spreadtrum and MediaTek (News - Alert) vendors will focus on entry-level LTE devices rather than focus on the high-end LTE market, where Cat6 chips will be used, Saadi added.

Earlier LTE chips, such as Cat3, are seeing less use, but they will still be found in LTE smartphones over the next few years, ABI said. Cat3 market share could be below 15 percent by 2019.

The predictions are found in ABI Research’s Mobile Device Semiconductors and LTE and 5G Semiconductors market research.