The quest for connectivity continues to drive Consumer Electronics (CE) manufacturers to enable their products with Wi-Fi technology. The next 5 years will see an increase in the number of Wi-Fi-enabled devices, from over 500 million in 2009 to nearly 2 billion in 2014, according to In-Stat (www.in-stat.com ). Devices leading the pace of adoption include Blu-ray players/recorders, e-readers, and digital televisions.

"The reality of 802.11n-enabled devices being available is that many of the technical issues that constrained Wi-Fi adoption in video-centric CE devices in the past have been remedied," says Frank Dickson, VP of Research. "As a result, we expect the adoption of Wi-Fi in the living room to accelerate. Across all 'digital living room' consumer electronics, which includes set top boxes, game consoles, Blu-ray players, digital picture frames, among other devices, Wi-Fi-enabled devices will exceed 200 million units by 2014.

The research includes:

• Mobile devices with Wi-Fi will still dominate shipments. 
• In 2013, shipments of mobile phones with embedded Wi-Fi are projected to exceed ¾ of a billion units.
• E-readers Wi-Fi attach rates will increase from 3% in 2009 to 88% by 2014.
• 29 million Digital Picture frames will be shipped in 2014; 53% will be Wi-Fi-enabled.

Recent In-Stat research, "Wireless LAN Market Estimates and Forecast by Device" (#IN1004856WS), provides global shipment numbers for all CE Devices along with the penetration of Wi-Fi into these devices. Specifically:

- Five-year forecast for Wi-Fi CE devices

- CE device shipments and Wi-Fi attach rates, segmented for:

• Gaming Consoles
• DTVs
• Set-Top Boxes
• Personal Video Recorders
• DVD and Blu-ray Players
• Media Adapters
• Printers 
• Multifunction peripherals
• Handheld Games
• PMPs
• Digital Cameras
• Portable Camcorders and IP Network Cameras
• PDAs
• Mobile PCs
• Portable CE Devices
• Cellular Handsets
• Routers, Residential Gateways, Standalone Access Points

About In-Stat

In-Stat's market intelligence combines technical, market and end-user research and database models to analyze the Mobile Internet and Digital Entertainment ecosystems. Our insights are derived from a deep understanding of technology impacts, nearly 30 years of history in research and consulting, and direct relationships with leading players in each of our core markets.