Smart home, beacon, wearable and other nascent Internet of Things (IoT) applications will propel the wireless IoT connectivity market, with IoT to account for 28 percent of the wireless connectivity IC market by 2021, according to ABI Research.
"2015 witnessed a growing trend toward the development of multiprotocol connectivity SoCs for the IoT, some of which support both Bluetooth Smart and 802.15.4," says Andrew Zignani, Industry Analyst at ABI Research, in a press release. "Devices that incorporate multiprotocol chipsets will be more futureproof. While a product might utilize Bluetooth in the short term, a device manufacturer may want to switch to Thread in the future or have the ability to talk to multiple connectivity protocols once deployed."
The researchers suggest that moving forward, it might not be a case of choosing either Bluetooth or ZigBee or Thread, but rather using a combination of these technologies in a single device. The recently announced acquisition of GreenPeak by Qorvo and the resulting expansion in their RF portfolio with low-power SoCs, 802.15.4 and Bluetooth solutions, illustrates the growing importance of both of these technologies for the IoT, according to ABI. Release