14 DAY TRIAL // According to Wi-Fi Alliance and In-Stat organizations, Wi-Fi sales have reached this year 300 million units. The figures show an overall increase of over 41% as compared to the 2006 sales, when only 213 million chipsets were shipped. The new record would not have been possible to achieve without a strong demand in the computer industry as well as the other consumer electronics products starting to use Wi-Fi on a broad scale.
"Consumers have come to expect Wi-Fi as a feature in many more devices than notebook computers, and manufacturers have responded accordingly", said Jonathan Gruber, research analyst at In-Stat. "Wi-Fi connectivity was included on virtually all gaming devices and an increasing number of handsets and music players this year, and we expect the overall proportion of consumer devices incorporating Wi-Fi to continue to grow for 2008."
According to In-Stat forecasts, some other 700 million devices will bundle onboard Wi-Fi connectivity until 2011, as a result of Wi-Fi consumer electronics (TV sets, for instance) and mobile telephony terminals featuring huge shipment rates compared to notebooks and portable computers. The 802.11g standard is already a strong presence on the market, while the younger 802.11n wireless standard has just been introduced but has already scored 9% of the total shipments. The 802.11n wireless standard covers five times the 802.11g throughput area, which makes it perfect for implementation inside home applications such as home theater, audio, gaming and computing systems.
"This was truly a banner year for the Wi-Fi industry, and we expect to see the strong growth continue", said Wi-Fi Alliance senior director Karen Hanley. "With the launch of 802.11n draft 2.0 certification and Wi-Fi Protected Setup to make it easier than ever to set up a protected Wi-Fi network, we look forward to continued growth of Wi-Fi in a wide variety of devices."