Production of and consumer demand for ‘smart,’ connected devices, and the popularity of Over-the-Top (OTT) video is driving adoption of Wi-Fi in home networks. The number of in-home video WiFi-enabled devices will approach 600 million in 2016, according to new research from In-Stat.
Digital TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles, set-top boxes (STBs), as well as use of computers, smartphones and media tablets are all contributing to increasing use of Wi-Fi in the home.
Included among the findings in In-Stat’s latest research report on Wi-Fi, “Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) by Device, Q1 ’12 Forecast,” are:
- Digital TVs will reach a 40% WLAN-attach rate by 2015
- In 2014, mobile hotspots will have an 802.11n attach rate of 98%
- Over 28 million WLAN-enabled Blu-ray players will ship in 2013
- The 802.11ac standard will achieve an attach rate in mini-notebooks of 23% in 2015
“Wi-Fi has moved from a nice-to-have feature to a must-have feature as it provides the connectivity necessary to support IP-based video content.” says Frank Dickson, Vice President of Research for In-Stat. “It is important to note though that Wi-Fi is growing from being simply about getting content from a network to devices, to sharing content between devices, as Wi-Fi evolves from being a network-centric connectivity standard to one that enables peer-to-peer connectivity. New innovations such as Wi-Fi Display and Wi-Fi Direct will fundamentally change the way that content is moved and shared in the home.”
