UltraFast Personal Networks Set To Boom

Written by Adam Gosling

Wednesday, 31 May 2006

In just three or four years time, ultrawideband networking will go from zero to hero as the personal area networking technology lifts off this year to reach near ubiquity by 2010. Recent forecasts by industry reseach outfit In-Stat indicate the UWB (Ultrawideband) chipsets will quickly ramp up after their release in the second half of this year. In-Stat estimates that some 289 million UWB chipsets will ship in 2010 alone indicating that not just about every cell phone, notebook computer, TV and DVD player selling will have UWB capabilities before long. In-Stat predicts that PCs will be the initial and largest volume market for UWB wireless chipsets, with PC vendors shipping over 125 million desktop and laptop PCs with UWB capability by 2010. But personal Are networking will ultimately reach the mobile phone. "The Personal Area Network (PAN) has been waiting for a wireless solution to complement the established wired applications," says Chris Kissel, In-Stat analyst. "This nascent technology is necessary to transmit large data files found in computers or in consumer electronics applications. UWB allows consumers to get rid of their rats' nests of wires in the living room or near their PC." The study predicts that UWB capabilities will initially be implemented using wireless USB dongles later this year and will gradually start to show up on PCMCIA cards that go into the PC motherboard before finally reaching widespread adoption in cell phones. A related report, "USB 2006: Here Comes Wireless", found that USB-enabled electronics device annual shipments will double from 1.4 billion in 2005 to 2.8 billion in 2010.  Included in this forecast are products in the PC, PC peripheral, Consumer Electronics (CE) and Communications segments, with several USB types serving applications in these segments, including low-, full-, and high-speed USB, as well as the newest entrant, Wireless USB (WUSB). Related news items Bluetooth SIG Settles On UWB -28/03/2006 Newer news items Nokia To Release In-Car Speakerphone -05/07/2007 Near Weightless ROKR Headsets A Must Have -15/05/2007 Gold Bluetooth Headset From Jabra -08/05/2007 British Bluetooth Headsets Lands In Aus -01/03/2007 Headset Brings Together Phone And MP3 Players -27/11/2006 Older news items BLUETOOTH GROWTH ACCELERATING -28/11/2005 BLUETOOTH DOUBLES AGAIN -26/09/2005 FIRST BLUETOOTH V2.0 HEADSETS -09/08/2005 WRIGGLE YOUR EARS -02/06/2005 BLUETOOTH ROADMAP INCLUDES UWB -06/05/2005 Tag This Now: