Wi-Fi Home Video Devices to Approach 600 Million Units Shipped in 2015

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The popularity of over-the-top video has created a demand for Wi-Fi in the entertainment cluster of home living rooms. Increasingly, home video entertainment devices such as digital TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles, and all versions of set top boxes (STBs) are coming to the market Wi-Fi-connected, so the devices can connect to the web and to each other. New In-Stat research shows that the evolution of the home network will drive the number of in-home video WLAN-enabled video devices to approach 600 million in 2015.

“Wi-Fi has moved from a nice-to-have feature to a must-have feature as itprovides the connectivity necessary to support IP-based video content.” says Frank Dickson, Vice President of Research. “It is important to note though that Wi-Fi is growing from being simply about getting content from a network to devices, to sharing content between devices, as Wi-Fi evolves from being a network-centric connectivity standard to one that enables peer-to-peer connectivity. New innovations such as Wi-Fi Display and Wi-Fi Direct will fundamentally change the way that content is moved and shared in the home.”

Some of the research findings include:

• Digital TVs will reach a 40% WLAN-attach rate by 2015
• In 2014, mobile hotspots will have an 802.11n attach rate of 98%
• Over 28 million WLAN-enabled Blu-ray players will ship in 2013
• The 802.11ac standard will achieve an attach rate in mini-notebooks of 23% in 2015

Recent In-Stat research, Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) by Device, Q1’12 Forecast (#IN1205244WS), covers the worldwide market for WLAN by device and by technology. The research includes:

• Forecasts of WLAN chipset units by market application segment and by 802.11b/g, 802.11n, and 802.11ac
• Segmentation for computing equipment, including Internet tablets, netbooks, and notebooks
• Segmentation for networking equipment, including access points, external adapters, gateways, and routers
• Segmentation for stationary consumer electronics (CE), including audio receivers, Blu-ray players, digital media adapters, digital picture frames, digital televisions, DVD players, gaming consoles, networked-attached storage, personal video recorders, and set-top boxes
• Segmentation for PC peripherals, including ink jet and laser printers
• Segmentation for portable CE, including digital cameras, handheld games, personal digital assistants, portable media players, and portable video camcorders
• Segmentation for mobile handsets, mobile hotspots, and automotive applications
• Segmentation for medical/industrial applications

This research is part of In-Stat’s Wi-Fi Markets service, which provides analysis of the market for Wi-Fi-enabled equipment and attach rates in PCs, peripherals, consumer electronics, communications, and industrial applications, as well as services such as hotspots and in-flight broadband.