Thursday, 5 June 2008

Almost 2.4 Billion Units of Bluetooth-Enabled Equipment to Ship in 2013

Some 2.4 billion units of Bluetooth-enabled equipment have been forecasted to ship worldwide in 2013.

Of these, more than half will be cellular handsets; adding the accompanying headsets brings that figure to more than 75% of the total market. Trailing behind are notebook computers and portable music devices in second and third place respectively.

A new study from ABI Research has highlighted that Bluetooth is showing up everywhere. Besides notebooks, portable music devices and mobile phones, it can be found in PDAs, desktop PCs, Human Interface Devices (eg. keyboards and mice), printers, automotive products, add-in cards and dongles, digital cameras and medical products.

This ubiquity opens up new opportunities.

“Integration is a key trend in Bluetooth markets,” says ABI Research senior analyst Douglas McEuen.

“Designers are saying ‘Bluetooth is in everything, so what else can we add to the Bluetooth chip?’ GPS is a popular candidate, as is FM radio. Some forms of integration just add speed and range, such as the current development of Bluetooth over 802.11.

“It’s the same with ultrawideband: the Bluetooth SIG is working with the WiMedia Alliance to create a technology codenamed “Seattle,” which will also add UWB’s high speed capabilities to Bluetooth.”

Gaming is another quite significant market for Bluetooth says ABI, although it is characterized by eccentric cycles of growth and contraction caused by the staggered 4-5 year generations of the three leading game consoles/remote controls.

McEuen adds, “The big Bluetooth IC vendors – CSR, Broadcom, and Texas Instruments – remain the market leaders. And as they see OEMs moving to develop Bluetooth into a more capable solution, they are meeting that demand.”