45% of Wi-Fi chipsets in CE devices to support 802.11ac by 2017, says IMS

IMS forecasts over 45 Percent of Wi-Fi Chipsets in Consumer Electronic Devices in 2017 to Support Next-Generation 802.11ac Standard. The other analytical points shared by IMS on WiFi chips market includes: The increasing demand for bandwidth from mobile devices will spur the rapid adoption of next-generation Wi-Fi technology, with shipments of chipsets supporting the new 802.11ac standard set to account for nearly one-half of all Wi-Fi chipsets shipped for use in the consumer electronic device market in 2017. Shipments of 802.11ac chipsets will make up 47 percent of all Wi-Fi chipset shipments in 2017, up from just 1.3 percent in 2013, according to the IHS (NYSE: IHS) Connected Devices Database. This will amount to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 430 percent from 2012 to 2017. However, another IHS study entitled “802.11 – New Markets and New Technologies – 2013 Edition“, which examines the broader range of device segments which contribute to the wider Internet of Things, found that the transition to 802.11ac in device segments other than consumer electronics—such as fleet management and consumer health monitoring—will occur far slower, if at all. This is because many of these applications do not require the higher data rates offered by 802.11ac to perform basic connectivity functions, such as low bit-rate data transfer. The 802.11ac standard prov...