Global sales of LTE smartphones will more than triple next year, IT market researcher Strategy Analytics predicted Sunday. It said global LTE smartphone shipments will rise from 90.9 million units in 2012 to 275 million in 2013.

Samsung Electronics and Apple are expected to keep dominating the fourth-generation phone market next year, with the Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5 remaining the most popular models. Challengers like HTC and Blackberry have a long way to catch up with the two giants, Strategy Analytics said.

But Nokia, LG Electronics, Pantech, and Huawei will join major manufacturers driving growth in the sector.

Samsung Electronics dominated the world's LTE smartphone market in the third quarter this year with a 40 percent share. Next came Apple (26.7 percent), LG Electronics (9.1 percent), Motorola (6.7 percent), and Pantech (5.8 percent).

The market has become highly valuable and will eventually attract new entrants seeking a slice of the 4G pie like Amazon or Mozilla, Strategy Analytics predicted.

Demand for mobile DRAM, a key component for 4G LTE high-performance smartphones, keeps rising. According to market researcher iSuppli, 3.69 billion 1-gigabit mobile DRAMs were sold around the world in the first three quarters this year, up more than 13 percent from annual sales of 3.24 billion units last year.

If the trend holds, the global mobile DRAM market will grow more than 50 percent over last year by the end of this month.

Samsung ranked top in the global DRAM market too with a 57.3 percent market share, followed by SK Hynix with 21.9 percent. Next came Japan's Elpida (16.7 percent) and the U.S.' Micron (3.4 percent).