Mobile phones, stationary CE driving new Wi-Fi growth

While mobile PCs and portable consumer electronic devices comprised the lion’s share of Wi-Fi chipset shipments in 2008, mobile handsets and stationary CE categories are driving the market growth, reports In-Stat

In 2008, Wi-Fi chipsets in mobile handsets grew by more than 51%. By 2010, In-Stat anticipates that this category will exceed 20% of the total Wi-Fi chipset market.

In Stat’s new report found the total Wi-Fi chipset revenue will pass $4 billion by 2012 and that while the Apple iPhone garnered a lot of attention in the handset category, Nokia and HTC led in Wi-Fi-enabled handset volumes.

The strong success of new netbook devices is boosting growth in the computing segment, and 802.11n will surpass 802.11g in the stationary CE embedded chipset segment in 2010.

New Bluetooth 3.0 specification uses 802.11g technology for the physical layer, which could open up a new market for Wi-Fi chipset suppliers.

Also, a new segment of digital media adapters (over-the-top devices), is generating a lot of attention in the Wi-Fi arena. They access third-party home entertainment services delivered across a broadband network with no affiliation to a broadband operator. These devices include Apple TV, the Netflix player by Roku, and the Blockbuster/2Wire Streaming MediaPoint box.

In-Stat