April 26, 2011 12:37 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Shipments of GPS-enabled GSM/WCDMA handsets grew 97 percent in 2010
According to a new research report by Berg Insight, global shipments of GPS-enabled GSM/WCDMA handsets increased almost 97 percent in 2010 to 295 million units. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.8 percent, shipments are forecasted to reach 940 million units in 2015. The attach rates for wireless connectivity technologies in handsets including GPS, Bluetooth and WLAN are increasing steadily as the adoption of smartphones accelerates. These connectivity technologies are already a standard feature on high-end smartphones. Adoption of GPS and WLAN will also increase rapidly in the medium- and low-end smartphone segments. The attach rate for WLAN connectivity in handsets reached 20 percent in 2010. Berg Insight forecasts shipments of WLAN-enabled handsets to reach 900 million in 2015.
There are numerous compelling use cases for WLAN in mobile phones, ranging from offloading data traffic from increasingly congested mobile networks to media synchronisation and hybrid navigation services, said Andr Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. Hybrid navigation technologies are necessary to enable reliable positioning indoors. New multi-mode GPS receivers that also support the Russian GLONASS satellite system are already available in handsets. When using the two systems in combination, more visible satellites will increase the chance to receive sufficiently strong signals to get a fix in urban canyons. He adds that further performance increases will come from hybrid location technologies that fuse signal measurements from multiple satellite systems, cellular networks and WLAN, together with data from various forms of sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and altimeters. Starting in the second half of 2011, more handsets supporting the Near Field Communication (NFC) standard for short-range wireless point-to-point communication will also become available. When deployed in mobile phones, NFC can be used for countless applications such as information exchange, electronic ticketing and mobile payments. Shipments of NFC-enabled handsets are forecasted to increase from less than two million units in 2010 to 400 million units in 2015.
When will NFC become mainstream in mass-market handsets? Berg Insight forecasts that 24 percent of mobile handsets sold in 2015 will feature NFC. In the same year, the attach rates for Bluetooth, GPS and WLAN are forecasted to be 85, 61 and 53 percent respectively. Find out more about these future handset connectivity technologies in this 120+ page strategic research report from Berg Insight.
Handset Connectivity Technologies is the second consecutive report from Berg Insight analysing the latest trends on the worldwide market for GNSS, Bluetooth, WLAN and NFC technologies in mobile handsets.
This report in the NGT Research Series provides you with 120 pages of unique business intelligence including 5-year industry forecasts and expert commentary on which to base your business decisions.
This report answers the following questions:
- What is driving the adoption of GPS technology in GSM/ WCDMA handsets?
- What are the benefits with Assisted-GPS, A-GNSS and hybrid location technologies?
- How will Bluetooth evolve in the future handset environment?
- What is the roadmap for integration of WLAN in mass-market mobile phones?
- When will NFC become a widespread handset connectivity technology?
- Which connectivity technologies are being adopted by the main handset manufacturers?
- What impact will new technologies have on the wireless chipset value chain?
- How is the greater diversity of radios affecting wireless chipset and handset design?
- Who are the leading developers of cellular and connectivity chipsets?
For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/4812c1/handset_connectivi
