ABI: 60GHz to Hit Mass Market

After years as a niche technology, 60GHz technology is set to become a mass market solution ABI Research reports-- with annual enabled device shipments to exceed 1 billion units by 2017.

wigigDriving such growth is the linking of the WiGig and Wifi Alliances and the forthcoming ratification of the 802.11ad standard, both advancements encouraging wifi IC vendors to add 11ad to future tri-band solutions (as in 11n/11ac/11ad).

Many describe 802.11ad as the next step for wifi, after 11ac.

Vendor partnerships are also bearing fruit-- the Wilocity-Qualcomm Atheros team up paved the way to more WiGig/802.11ad devices, such as the first ultrabook from Dell carrying the technology.

ABI expects mobile devices to be the next market embracing the technology, primarily for media streaming between TVs. Growing 11ad adoption from smartphones will give rise to further adoption from connected home equipment, driving the market from external solutions (such as dongles) to integrated solutions.

"We expect a significant amount of consolidation in the market over the next 18 months as the 11ad market starts to take off,” ABI adds. “In some instances, smaller 60GHz technology focused companies will be swallowed up by the dominant wireless connectivity suppliers, others will be driven out of the market or at least into the margins as 11ad becomes an established technology, but without a push from the big guys the market will fail to gain traction.”

Go 60GHz Technology, 11ad Driving Market Growth (ABI Research)