News

6 October 2006

WLAN chip market to grow at 17% to $3.2bn by 2010

The wireless LAN (WLAN) semiconductor market continues to look strong and will grow at a 17% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to $3.2bn by 2010, forecasts IDC in its ‘Worldwide WLAN Semiconductor 2005-2010 Forecast’. IDC says that this growth is due to technology advancements in 802.11, such as single-chip low-power devices, production of pre-N and draft-N chipsets, and burgeoning end-market applications.

While industry-wide competition has continued to force pricing down, opportunity continues to abound for WLAN chip suppliers. The primary growth opportunity is in embedded applications such as mobile phones and in select consumer electronic designs.

"To remain viable players in this space, chip vendors must think about WLAN as a portfolio technology that can compl- ement products in broadband, wired networking, consumer devices, PC, or mobile device designs," said Celeste Crystal, senior research analyst for IDC's Semiconductors group. "By focusing on end markets and the ecosystem, WLAN chip vendors will differentiate products and drive pricing and product differentiation in the industry."

Visit: http://www.idc.com