Big surge due for high speed WiFi

More consumer electronics products will naturally take advantage of very high speed wireless capabilities, says a new report from IHS Inc. That’s going to lead to a lucrative explosion in demand. Things like smartphones, televisions and mobile PCs are expected account for an annual 503 million devices by 2018, up more than tenfold from 49 million units anticipated in 2013.

That’s tremendous growth for this industry (these days). IHS reckons growth will range from 60 to 120 per cent but the spasm will moderate by 2017/18 to show increases of a ‘mere’ 30 per cent or so, a rate just about any other segment in our industry would kill for.

A high-speed wireless-enabled device, as defined by IHS, is one that includes at least one of the following technologies: WirelessHD, WHDI, 802.11ad (WiGig) or multi-stream Wi-Fi (802.11n 3x3 higher or 802.11ac 2x2 and higher).

These are the chaps that run several times faster than that what must now (already) be seen as legacy 802.11n They offer speeds of 72 megabits per second (mbps) to 530 mbps typical of Wi-Fi.

“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,” said 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.”

The Top 3 revenue opportunities for suppliers of high-speed wireless integrated circuits will be smartphones, TVs and mobile PCs, Gibbons noted. By 2018, some 1.7 billion high-speed wireless ICs will ship cumulatively into these three and various other applications.

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