Wi-Fi-Enabled Devices to Exceed 1.9 Billion Units by 2014

Thursday, July 29th, 2010
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The quest for connectivity continues to drive Consumer Electronics (CE) manufacturers to enable their products with Wi-Fi technology. The next 5 years will see an increase in the number of Wi-Fi-enabled devices, from over 500 million in 2009 to nearly 2 billion in 2014, according to In-Stat. Devices leading the pace of adoption include Blu-ray players/recorders, e-readers, and digital televisions.

“The reality of 802.11n-enabled devices being available is that many of the technical issues that constrained Wi-Fi adoption in video-centric CE devices in the past have been remedied,” says Frank Dickson, Vice President. “As a result, we expect the adoption of Wi-Fi in the living room to accelerate. Across all ‘digital living room’ electronics, which includes set top boxes, game consoles, and other such devices, Wi-Fi-enabled devices will exceed 200 million units by 2014.”

Some of the research findings include:

  • Mobile devices with Wi-Fi will still dominate shipments. In 2013, shipments of mobile phones with embedded Wi-Fi are projected to exceed ¾ of a billion units.
  • E-readers Wi-Fi attach rates will increase from 3% in 2009 to 88% by 2014.
  • 29 million digital picture frames will be shipped in 2014; 53% will be Wi-Fi-enabled.

Recent In-Stat research, “Wireless LAN Market Estimates and Forecast by Device” (#IN1004856WS), provides global shipment numbers for all CE devices along with the penetration of Wi-Fi into these devices.

Specifically, this research provides a five-year forecast for Wi-Fi CE devices, and CE device shipments and Wi-Fi attach rates, segmented for:

  • Gaming Consoles
  • DTVs
  • Set-Top Boxes
  • Personal Video Recorders
  • DVD and Blu-ray Players
  • Media Adapters
  • Printers
  • Multifunction Peripherals
  • Handheld Games
  • PMPs
  • Digital Cameras
  • Portable Camcorders and IP Network Cameras
  • PDAs
  • Mobile PCs
  • Portable CE Devices
  • Cellular Handsets
  • Routers, Residential Gateways, and Standalone Access Points

For a free sample of the report and more information contact Elaine Potter, epotter@in-stat.com; (480) 483-4441.