Monday, 21 July 2008

Cheaper WiMAX Chipsets Good News for Adoption of Smaller Mobile Devices

The WiMAX chipset market is advancing quickly.

According to new revelations from ABI Research, there are solid 2-chip designs consisting of a single-chip baseband IC and a single-chip RF IC that are bringing power consumption down.

"Even as the mobile WiMAX chipset market has barely gotten its feet wet, chipset ASPs are declining rapidly due to heavy competition and greater integration in designs," says Philip Solis, principal analyst, ABI Research

"Prices for the baseband and RF components of the chipset have come down from the 35 dollar range a few years ago to below 25 dollar, and will drop below 10 dollar in 2011. These falling WiMAX chipset prices are critical for inclusion of the technology in smaller mobile devices."

Even when global subscriber numbers reach the high tens of millions, ABI Research expects chipset shipments to be well into the hundreds of millions.

Many devices are expected to include WiMAX capabilities well before users subscribe to WiMAX-based service plans, and some consumers may never utilize the WiMAX capabilities included in their equipment, as more devices start to include other wireless wide-area network connectivity features. In addition, some WiMAX subscribers will have multiple WiMAX-enabled devices on one subscription plan.

"WiMAX will look a bit like Wi-Fi in terms of rapid ASP declines and moves towards 100% penetration in laptops," continues Solis.

"Expansion into various mobile devices including Mobile Internet Devices and consumer electronics will be critical to the growth of the WiMAX chipset market."