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LTE TDD has gained wide ecosystem acceptance and backing from leading infrastructure and device vendors. Ovum expects that 25 percent of all LTE connections will include LTE TDD by 2016.
ABI Research’s latest forecasts for Enterprise and Consumer Femtocells, also referred to as Indoor Small Cells, estimate largely flat volume shipments in 2012 relative to 2011. The shipments in 2012 are expected to contain 2.44 million units, similar to the 2.47 million units shipped in 2011. In total, ABI Research estimates 5.3 million units will be deployed by end 2012.
Mobile Experts released a report that predicts a new future for base station semiconductors. In particular, the number of base station transceivers will grow to more than 17 million per year by 2017. Increasing bandwidth requirements, MIMO, and carrier aggregation will drive growth in key semiconductor components. The new report, "Semiconductors for Macro Transceivers and RRH," gives a detailed analysis of these trends.
Active DAS (distributed antenna systems) equipment revenues are estimated to cross $1 billion by 2013. Active DAS equipment is mostly made up of headend and remote units, which are used to distribute cellular signals throughout a building.
Companies, governments, and industries are increasingly turning to RFID as they look to modernize their operations, becoming more efficient and enabling quicker, more convenient service. The traditional uses of RFID for the identification of animals, people, and within the automotive sector are continuing to grow and are projected to increase by $2.8 billion from 2012 to 2017. However, ABI Research’s new RFID Market Tracker found that modernizing RFID applications will grow twice as fast with annual revenues derived from these jumping by $4.5 billion in the same timeframe.
The total Bluetooth IC market (including stand alone and combo ICs) is expected to reach $4.3 billion in 2012 — an increase of 21% on 2011. Revenues are forecast to grow at a compound growth rate of over 20% to reach almost $12 billion by 2017.
Wireless infrastructure equipment revenues continued their downward trend in the second quarter of 2012 reaching only $11.2 billion – a 4.7 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2012 and a 14 percent decrease from the same quarter one year ago. “Total revenues for wireless network equipment reported by the vendors was the lowest amount that we have seen since 3Q 2003; reaching a 35 quarter low,” says Nick Marshall, principal analyst, networks.
The number of Wi-Fi enabled devices shipped in 2012 is expected to surpass 1.5 billion. Growth is occurring across many markets including mobile handsets, laptops, media tablets, printers, TVs, and automotive. “Since 2009 over 9 billion Wi-Fi enabled devices have been shipped,” commented Peter Cooney, wireless connectivity practice director, “whilst growth was driven by networking in the early years the smartphone soon became the major market.
A new forecast predicts dramatic growth in the semiconductor market supporting small cells, from $90 million in 2012 to more than $650 million in 2017. In particular, semiconductors supporting carrier-grade small cells (excluding consumer and enterprise femtocells) will ramp from practically zero revenue in 2012 to a staggering $500 million in 2017.
After many years of waiting, 60 GHz technology looks set to emerge from a niche technology to a mass market solution. The main enabler has been the linking of the WiGig Alliance with the Wi-Fi Alliance and the forthcoming ratification of the 802.11ad standard which will encourage more Wi-Fi IC vendors to add 11ad to future tri-band solutions (i.e., 11n / 11ac / 11ad).
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