Many consumer electronic (CE) products now include Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) connectivity using the available Wi-Fi standards 802.11b/g, 802.11n, and the soon-to-be available 802.11ac.
Most of these CE products can be categorized as portable or mobile. More recently, products typically cast as stationary -- such as TVs, DVD/Blu-ray players, and digital photo frames -- can now wirelessly connect to the Internet or a home network, providing access to digital media content.
Even though the WLAN attach rates of these stationary devices remain relatively low in comparison to their portable counterparts, the size of the combined WLAN-enabled CE markets will surpass 419 million units shipped by 2015, according to the latest market study by In-Stat.
"WLAN connectivity in portable CE devices is not a novel idea and, in fact, an absolute requirement in most cases," says Frank Dickson, Vice President of Research at In-Stat.
The global embedded base of web-enabled and smart CE devices is expected to grow substantially over the next five years, providing the connectivity necessary to support IP-based video content. Smart CE devices actually go one step further, offering online applications.
In-Stat's latest market study findings include:
- E-readers will reach a 90 percent WLAN attach rate by 2015.
- In 2014, handheld game consoles will have an 802.11n attach rate of 32 percent.
- Over 54 million WLAN-enabled digital TVs will ship in 2013.
- The 802.11ac standard will reach an attach rate in notebooks of 57 percent in 2015.
