Global sales of LTE-enabled smartphones are expected to triple to 275 million units in 2013, according to an estimate by Strategy Analytics.

The popularity of LTE models will also extend to cover most markets in Europe and Asia as well as other emerging markets, in addition to the US, Korea and Japan, which are currently more mature in terms of LTE services, according to industry watchers.

However, the growing popularity and the continual rollout of LTE models by branded vendors may intensify patent lawsuits which have been common within the smartphone industry, said the watchers.

InterDigital has recently added Samsung Electronics to the list of defendants for alleged infringements of its patents related to LTE, WCDMA and CDMA 2000 technologies. InterDigital has also accused a number of brands including Nokia, Huawei and ZTE and has not yet settled disputes with these brands.

To avoid possible lawsuits, Research in Motion (RIM) has opted to sign a license agreement with InterDigital for the rollout of its first LTE phone to be released in the first quarter of 2013, indicated the sources.