In-Stat: Wi-Fi Chipset Market Continues Impressive Growth

In-Stat has issued a new report that finds "the Wireless LAN (WLAN) chipset market is on a phenomenal growth pace that is projected to continue over the next few years." In-stat forecasts that "the market will soar from just over 140 million annual chipset unit shipments in 2005 to 430 million in 2009." Gemma Tedesco at In-Stat said, "The market has been driven primarily by traditional networking devices over the last five years, as well as embedded Wi-Fi in mobile PCs. But the market is shifting, as it will be increasingly buoyed by new categories of devices such as handheld games, gaming consoles, cell phones and printers."

Key findings include:

• Broadcom, Atheros, and Intel were the market leaders in 2005, each ruling specific market segments.
• In 2007 and 2008, the phone segment will noticeably emerge, driven by embedded Wi-Fi in cellular phones.
• In 2005, overall chipset revenues were expected to reach almost $1 billion.