The total market for standards-based
wireless connectivity ICs is expected to exceed 3.5 billion units per annum in
2011.
Broadcom leads the market with Qualcomm,
CSR, and Texas Instruments all snapping at its heels.
“The market will total more than $11
billion per annum by 2014,” said Peter Cooney, practice director, semiconductors,
ABI Research.
Wireless connectivity technology is well
established in many electronic device markets. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS are
becoming ubiquitous in certain devices, such as smartphones, with attach rates
approaching 100 percent in some cases. Rapid growth is forecast for newer
technologies such as NFC, Bluetooth v4.0, Wi-Fi Direct, and 802.11n.
Wireless connectivity has developed into a
strong revenue stream for many leading global semiconductor suppliers. Those
that have focused on expanding their product portfolio and transitioning their
businesses toward providing combo ICs have seen the most growth in market
share.
As the wireless connectivity industry has
matured and the market has grown to a multi-billion dollar business, many
suppliers have sought to diversify their product ranges and expand into other
markets.
This has been achieved in large part by
mergers and acquisitions. Broadcom, Qualcomm Atheros, CSR, TI,
STMicroelectronics, Marvell, MediaTek, and Intel (Infineon) now all supply a
wide range of wireless connectivity technologies.
By Telecomlead.com Team
