Shipments of devices equipped with high speed wireless technologies will grow tenfold over the next five years, research firm IHS predicts.
Products including smartphones, TVs, and mobile PCs are increasingly utilizing rapid wireless transfer capabilities from technologies including Wireless HD, WHDI, WiGig, and multi-stream Wi-Fi. IHS tips shipments to increase from an estimated 49 million units in 2013 to 503 million by 2018, with growth of between 60% and 120% predicted in the next three years alone.
IHS also forecasts shipments of high-speed wireless ICs will hit 1.7 billion in 2018, and that 537 million wireless modules will ship that year – 60% of which will be multistream Wi-Fi modules.
“Much of the anticipated growth in the high-speed wireless industry will be attributed to the increase of both WiGig and multistream Wi-Fi in mobile and home entertainment applications by the end of the forecast period,” says Stephanie Gibbons, senior analyst for connectivity at IHS. “In particular, WiGig and multistream Wi-Fi are the two technologies set to drive high-speed wireless adoption into key consumer electronics applications.”