Wi-Fi could be in 1 billion CE devices by 2012
I’m a big fan of the daily CEA Smartbrief newsletter. The consumer electronics industry is so dynamic and produces so much news it’s hard to keep track. Today’s most interesting article was by Marguerite Reardon at CNET that leverages data from In-Stat. According to In-Stat in 2007 294 million devices shipped with wifi. More interesting is their prediction that by 2012 this will approach 1B devices. The drivers for this are threefold:
1. Cost of wifi hardware is coming down.
2. Consumers are beginning to access more and more internet content like music and videos on their TV, stereo system or mobile device in addition to their PC.
3. Improved battery life on mobile devices makes it more practical to include wifi.
At Cisco we are certainly excited about this forecast and our own research supports this trend. We are at the early stages of a significant transition in the CE industry moving from stand-alone devices to connected experiences. This will provide new opportunities for service and device innovation and will provide the consumer the type of experiences and freedom they demand.
This is certainly a trend that bears watching.
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Posted by Mike Kisch at 01:14PM PST
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