5Bn Wireless Connectivity Chips to Ship in 2013

The number of standards-based wireless connectivity chips including standalone Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, NFC, and ZigBee, as well as connectivity combo ICs and platform solutions  that will be shipped in 2013 will exceed 5 billion according to ABI Research.

The leading supplier, Broadcom, will continue to dominate, benefiting largely from the fast growing connectivity combo IC market. Qualcomm will also see growth due to continued uptake of its snapdragon platform in the smartphone market.

"Increased diversification and building out product portfolios to include many wireless connectivity technologies is crucial to vendors' current and future success," commented Peter Cooney, ABI research's wireless connectivity practice director. "

“Both Broadcom and Qualcomm recently announced new NFC products which will be an essential addition as this technology sees market acceptance over the next 5 years." Cooney added

Standalone wireless connectivity ICs will continue to be very important as newer technologies such as Bluetooth Smart, WiGig, and NFC penetrate high volume applications and are increasingly adopted in developing markets such as sports & fitness, automotive, and retail.

 Connectivity combos (i.e. those with two or more wireless connectivity technologies integrated) will continue to see strong shipment and revenue growth particularly in high volume consumer markets such as laptops, tablets, and TVs.

Platform solutions will see the strongest growth (from a smaller base) as these enable OEMs to achieve even faster time to market in very competitive areas such as low-end smartphones.

"In the next few years we will see some very important milestones achieved for the wireless connectivity market," added Cooney.

He said that  "In 2013 cumulative shipments of Bluetooth-enabled devices will surpass 10 billion and Wi-Fi enabled devices will surpass 10 billion cumulative shipments in 2015. This clearly shows the level of penetration into the electronics market that wireless connectivity technologies have achieved, and there is a lot more to come as the consumers' appetite for wire free solutions will continue unabated."