Market researcher Forward Concepts reports that shipments of WLAN products increased more than 100 percent in 2002, and will continue growing as the most charged wireless market performer for the next several years. While average equipment prices overall dropped by almost 28 percent, revenues increased more than 50 percent to $2.6 billion worldwide in 2002.
The study forecasts that the WLAN equipment market will continue growing at a 43 percent compound annual growth rate, reaching the $10.3 billion level in 2006.
The WLAN chip market grew more than 43 percent in 2002 to $364 million, despite a 31 percent decline in overall average selling prices (ASPs). The study also projected that overall WLAN chip revenues will continue to grow at a 49 percent CAGR in the midst of continual ASP declines and raised competition, which will force some companies to exit the market.
On the Wi-Fi side, Forward Concepts reported that the 5GHz 802.11a market will have a very short life, giving way to combo 802.11ab and 802.11ag devices, with the 2.4GHz 802.11b market continuing to be the major player.
Researcher ABI thinks by 2004 revenue from dual-band chipsets will exceed those from 802.11g and 802.11b. The market entry of Taiwanese IC players in 2003 will further pressure 802.11b pricing. The pattern of continuous price declines will quickly extend beyond the existing 802.11b chip market into 802.11g and dual-band segments.
The report also predicted that the hot-spot market that began with Starbucks Coffee is hot. Starbucks and T-Mobile now have close to 2000 “hot spots” while Boingo currently has about 1,000 affiliated hot spots. Cometa plans to deploy 20,000 Wi-Fi access points in the coming years. They plan to begin setting up hot spots throughout the top 50 cities in the United States next year, with AT&T providing network infrastructure and management, and IBM providing wireless site installations and back-office systems.
NodedB maps some of estimated 15 million hot spots in homes and businesses across the United States.
The Federal Communications Commission’s biannual report said there were approximately 16.2 million broadband customers as of June 2002, up from 9.6 million a year earlier and 12.8 million six months before.
Globally, in terms of absolute DSL lines, the United States ranks high, but in terms of DSL per 100 population, the US has fallen below the bottom of the chart. In the United States, DSL is mostly for the wealthy class or computer-oriented geeks.
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