News

10 September 2009

 

Multi-stream MIMO 802.11n to drive doubling of Wi-Fi PA market to $1bn in 2013

Vendors will ship $4bn in Wi-Fi radio chips in 2013, mostly for cellphones, notebooks, netbooks, infrastructure, home entertainment systems and wireless gaming consoles, forecasts market research firm Strategy Analytics. Meanwhile, the adoption of 802.11n MIMO with multiple transmit streams will help to boost the market for Wi-Fi power amplifier modules to twice its 2008 size, despite continued pricing pressure, according to the firm's report
‘Wi-Fi Radio Component Forecast 2009 - 2013: New Applications & MIMO Drive Growth’.

“By the end of 2010, 802.11n will ship in more than half of all Wi-Fi systems,” says Christopher Taylor, director of the Strategy Analytics RF and Wireless Components research service. “Prices for single-stream 802.11n (1 x 1) chipsets and PAs have already dropped to match 802.11g, prompting OEMs to quickly begin to switch from 802.11g to 802.11n 1 x 1 chipsets in new products,” he adds.

“As Wi-Fi continues to proliferate in new devices and applications, multi-stream MIMO configurations of 802.11n (i.e. 2 x 2, 3 x 3 and 4 x 4, transmit x receive) will rapidly grow in support of demand for greater range, faster file transfers and streaming multimedia in many of these applications,” says Taylor. This will push the Wi-Fi power amp market to almost $1bn over the next five years according to the Strategy Analytics Wi-Fi component forecast model, which considers MIMO stream adoption rates by application.

According to another Strategy Analytics report ‘Wi-Fi Radio Component Vendor Share and Outlook: Broadcom & SiGe Semi Positioned to Maintain Leads’, Broadcom will probably remain on top, but it faces increasing competition from cellular chip vendors bundling connectivity with their platforms, and from chip specialists targeting emerging applications such as Wi-Fi for home entertainment. In power amplifiers, SiGe Semiconductor has established a firm lead, despite increasing competition from gallium arsenide PA module specialists Skyworks, RF Micro Devices, TriQuint Semiconductor and Anadigics.

Search: Wi-Fi 802.11n MIMO

Visit: www.strategyanalytics.com