Shipments of ICs for short range wireless technologies such as Bluetooth, NFC, UWB, 802.15.4 and Wi-Fi will show an increase in the current year of 20 per cent over the 2009 figure, according to the latest data from ABI Research. The leading technology in this group is Bluetooth which will account for 58 per cent of the short range wireless IC market in 2010. Cellular handsets and accessories are taking a significant portion of the market for Bluetooth-enabled products in 2010, accounting for almost 75 per cent of total shipments. This is followed by the notebook and UMD segments, taking approximately 12 per cent. The second largest short range wireless technology IC sector is Wi-Fi which makes up around 35 per cent of total shipments with NFC, UWB and 802.15.4 accounting for the remainder. The Bluetooth market is expected to grow over the next five years driven by the demand for Bluetooth-enabled consumer electronic and home entertainment products.
ABI Research industry analyst Celia Bo says, "Combination chip solutions that integrate two or more short-range wireless technologies will be broadly deployed in hundreds of millions of electronic devices due to their advantages of lower cost and smaller chip size, paving the way for expansion of the short-range wireless IC market."
The highest market share in the combination chip sector is the Bluetooth+FM radio integration solution followed by Bluetooth+Wi-Fi+FM radio and Bluetooth+FM radio+GPS solutions. Bluetooth's integration with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) wireless technology will be adopted widely from next year and is projected to account for more than 50 per cent of total Bluetooth combination IC shipments in 2015.
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