Trend: WiFi chip market moves to dual-mode devices

The WiFi chip market is quickly shifting its focus away from WLAN networking gear towards embedded solutions designed for use in dual-mode cellular/WiFi mobile phones and handhelds. Texas Instruments is the early leader in the mobile WiFi chip market. The company has already put its WiFi chips in over 20 handheld devices. Other vendors, including Atheros, SyChip, and Broadcom, are rushing to get embedded WiFi solutions to the market. According to researcher IDC, Broadcom is the leading WiFi chip marker, followed by Atheros, Intel, Connexant, and TI. Growing demand for embedded WiFi chips in mobile phones is expected to help fuel the WiFi chip market to $3 billion in revenue by 2009.

For more on the trend towards dual-mode WiFi chip sales:
- check out this article from internetnews.com

PLUS: Canadian carriers push for inter-carrier WiFi services. Release