If you’re an IT professional wondering whether or not to boost your budget for mobile management services, perhaps you should consider new research.

A recent survey conducted by research firm ABI Research indicated that mobile broadband subscriptions had surpassed 271 million by end of 2009.

Specifically, ABI Research’s (News - Alert) “Wireless Subscriber Forecasts” series of Market Data products reported that cellular subscription numbers worldwide surpassed 4.35 billion by the end of 2009, with a year-over-year growth of 10.4 percent.

During the first half of 2009, the global cellular subscriptions slowed noticeably as the emerging markets were hurt due to economic downturn. In the mean time, the rate of adoption slowed and existing end-users reduced spending on cellular subscriptions.

However, in late 2009, the global cellular subscription adoption started recovering. Consequently, the global cellular penetration increased by 66 percent.

According to Jake Saunders, vice president of forecasting, there is still some mileage in EDGE subscriptions, which topped by 28 percent, and GSM voice-only subscriptions, which topped by 8 percent. But GPRS subs are shrinking.

“However 3G and 3.5G subscriptions are ramping up as the ‘need for speed’ encourages end-users to upgrade,” Saunders said. “At the end of 2009, there were 181 million HSPA subscriptions. Overall, mobile broadband subscriptions grew to 271 million for a YoY growth rate of 43 percent.”

According to the report, the Asia-Pacific region accounts for 45 percent of the global cellular market compared to just 29 percent ten years ago. It is anticipated that the next-largest market would be Western Europe with 13 percent followed by North America with 7.2 percent.

Even though the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 45 percent of the global cellular market, the cellular penetration in the region has reached only 52.5 percent compared to 140 percent in Western Europe and 93 percent in North America.

The report anticipates that the global cellular penetration will include 80 percent of the world’s population by early 2014.

“There is a very real prospect that within the next five to ten years, cellular subscription penetration will pass through 200 percent in a number of developed countries,” said analyst Bhavya Khanna, in a release. “USB dongles, embedded modems in netbooks, laptops, tablets and consumer electronics will test the definition of ‘mobile cellular subscriber.’ Operators will need to evolve to multiple devices per subscription to retain customers.”

ABI Research’s “Wireless Subscriber Forecasts” series of Market Data products covers regions such as North and South America, Asia-Pacific, Western and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Worldwide. The research firm has tracked key subscription trends by quarter by operator for more than 120 markets.