AT&T (News - Alert) announced on Friday that it has added more than 6 million connected devices to its network in the last five quarters. Its "emerging device" growth in the fourth quarter, including 1.5 million connected devices as well as embedded computing devices, was nearly 2 million.

Tablets, netbooks and laptops are included in the embedded computing devices category, and are included in either the company's postpaid or prepaid subscriber categories.

For both businesses and consumers, nearly 11 million emerging devices, including postpaid and prepaid embedded computing devices are connected to the AT&T network.

Personal navigation devices, telematics, eReaders, digital photo frames, and even home security monitoring and smart grid devices for use on its wireless network are among the more than 940 specialty devices AT&T has certified for use as consumer or business solutions.

Despite having a leading portfolio of emerging and connected devices, AT&T is not content to rest on its laurels and has announced plans to support even more new devices this year. These include: The Pandigital Novel eReader, a 9-inch full-color LCD eReader and Android (News - Alert) Multimedia Tablet that will connect to the AT&T wireless network for accessing the Barnes & Noble eBookstore; nationwide network connection for Vitality (News - Alert), Inc's GlowCaps, which are intelligent pill caps designed to help patients take medications regularly through a series of reminders, including light, sound, text message and phone call alerts if the cap is not opened as scheduled; nationwide network connection for the new Garmin (News - Alert) GTU 10, a small, waterproof device that allows customers to track items of importance; and an agreement with BMW to wirelessly deliver an enhanced suite of safety and infotainment services to future BMW models.

AT&T’s Advanced Enterprise Mobility Solutions Group was formed in May 2010 to deliver advanced mobile applications and solutions for both traditional and emerging devices. Chris Hill, vice president, Advanced Enterprise Mobility Solutions, AT&T Business Solutions, said "AT&T is uniquely positioned to help our enterprise customers connect, monitor, and manage these new Internet endpoints with wireless and information technology.  And that new information, combined with wirelessly-enabled workers unleashes tremendous business process innovation, in turn enabling enterprises to serve their own customers in innovative new ways."