
Shipments of consumer electronics, computer, communications and automotive products with built-in WLAN capability such as Wi-Fi will amount to 1.2 billion units in 2011, up 35.8 percent from 880.4 billion units in 2010. In 2015, shipments will reach 2.2 billion units, the company said.
The devices that are getting enhanced with embedded WLAN include: PCs, cell phones, digital cameras and camcorders, home and handheld video game consoles, televisions, set-top boxes and portable navigation devices.
Several product categories in 2011 already are expected to have 100 percent penetration for embedded WLAN, including media tablets, access point/routers and handheld video game consoles. Others are near 100 percent, such as mobile PCs and home video game consoles.
In terms of shipments, cell phones represent the largest category for embedded WLAN, with 512.8 million units set to ship this year. Mobile PCs will come in second at 230.1 million units.
The WLAN wave is expected to penetrate the automotive electronics, LCD televisions. Other fast-growing segments in the coming years will be digital camcorders and still cameras, DVD players and recorders, and e-book readers, IHS said.
