Communications and Technology Industry Research

The NPD Group (News - Alert), a company offering comprehensive consumer and retail information for a wide range of industries, has released a new report called “Wi-Fi Chipsets: Is 802.11ac The New Black?”, which suggests that new markets such as smart meters, wireless mice, automobiles, and home automation will help drive sales of Wi-Fi chipsets to $6.1 billion in 2015.

The report talks about how the demand for devices with Wi-Fi connectivity is growing and with that how the price for chipsets is decreasing. It even discusses about the factors that are helping to open up new markets for Wi-Fi in areas traditionally dominated by other wireless connectivity standards.

“As Wi-Fi appears in more and more devices the demand for additional bandwidth will grow along with it,” said Greg Potter, Research Analyst. “Granted, broadband speeds are not yet fully utilizing the available bandwidth allowed by Wi-Fi. However, newer use cases – such as streaming high-definition video from devices to the TV – necessitate an increase in bandwidth. New standards such as 802.11ac aim to provide that necessary speed increase.”

More findings of the report include that 802.11ac will grow rapidly with chipset shipments to surpass 650 million by 2015 and the three biggest markets for 802.11ac will be smartphones, notebooks, and tablets.

In addition, the report also speaks about the recent news in Wi-Fi, analysis of new standards such as 802.11ac and Wi-Fi Direct, analysis of low-power chipsets, and of monolithic, combo, and embedded chipsets.

Chipsets are forecast by type (monolithic, combo, embedded) and by standard (802.11a/bg, 802.11n, 802.11ac) with data provided for the years 2010 through 2015. Data and analysis are presented on the number of Wi-Fi chipsets shipped worldwide across 33 different product categories.

Technology vendors, equipment manufacturers, service providers and media companies can use the NPD In-Stat’s report to support critical business, product and technology decisions.

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