Research company IDC today published a new study on the market for hardware for PCs, desktop computers, and laptops. IDC predicts that short-range wireless communications technologies - Bluetooth and Ultra Wideband (UWB) - will double their present market share to 57% of laptops by 2010.
Wireless technology is expected to be installed in 25.6% of desktop computers by 2010. For the sake of comparison, short-range wireless technology was installed in 25.6% of laptops and just 7.9% of desktop computers in 2006.
IDC Israel communications technologies analyst Gilad Nass said that UWB was expected to become the most innovative and fastest technology, replacing wire links between devices, and was now capable of transmission rates of 480 Mbps, which would double in the future.
In contrast to home entertainment devices, such as high definition televisions, DVDs, and audio systems, which only need high bandwidth, PCs still need a Bluetooth channel to transmit data that does not require substantial bandwidth for applications, such as synchronization between contacts and diaries in cellular phones and PDAs and between desktop and laptop computers. Nass says the low price of Bluetooth components will preserve its status as a regular add-on in a great many laptops in the near future.
Meanwhile, Ultra-wideband technology will penetrate laptop and desktop computers for the synchronization and transmission of multimedia-rich content from digital and video cameras, advanced cellular phones, and communications with home entertainment accessories. Nass says that, despite hopes that UWB technology would enter commercial use three years ago, the ongoing argument between giants such as Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC) and Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) over the standard has significantly delayed market launch. There is still no agreed-upon standard for UWB, and each side is working on developments compatible only with the same group’s components.
This means that a laptop with a UWB component from the group of companies led by Intel cannot communicate with a television equipped with a UWB component made by the group of companies led by Motorola. Nass says the result is that the two groups have preferred to channel their activities as far as possible into parallel markets, rather than overlapping ones. The Intel group (which includes Israeli start-up Wisair) mainly operates in the computer and mobile consumer products markets, such as cameras and MP3 players, while the much smaller Motorola group focuses on the television, DVD, and set-top box market, partly because of Motorola’s ties with companies in this sector.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on April 5, 2007
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