ABI: Wibree Market Has Potential to Exceed $500M by 2011
December 15, 2006 // Published as a news service by IHS
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Recent analysis from ABI Research found that the market for Wibree products could reach $513M by 2011, as long as several key prerequisites are all met within the same timeframe, including forcing Wibree into handsets sooner than later.
"While some industry observers are skeptical about the prospects for Wibree, we believe it is a unique technology that can leverage the very positive market position of Bluetooth in segments such as medical and sports equipment, where the total available market is extremely large and still relatively untouched," said ABI Research principal analyst Stuart Carlaw.
Bluetooth is an industry standard that facilitates communication between wireless devices and handheld computers, and wireless laptop or desktop computers and peripherals.
IEEE 802.15.1 is a wireless personal area network (WPAN) standard based on the Bluetooth specifications. Wibree, also called baby Bluetooth, is a low-power, short-range, wireless technology that is considered a complement to Bluetooth.
Analysts said the ABI Research forecast of 800 million enabled devices by 2011 is predicated on a set of five key preconditions that all need to be met if the market is to reach these levels:
- Nokia forces Wibree into handsets at the earliest opportunity.
- Silicon vendors bring dual mode integrated circuits (ICs) to market at prices close to those of today's Bluetooth ICs.
- The ratio of dual mode to stand-alone devices grows rapidly after a period of market seeding.
- Bluetooth special interest group (SIG) adopts Wibree technology.
- Wibree is widely accepted by handset vendors.
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"By far the biggest factors that will dictate the outcome for Wibree are the adoption of the technology by the Bluetooth SIG, and its widespread adoption by numerous handset vendors. If these do not happen, the market will be near zero," said Carlaw. "These two factors go hand in hand to some degree, and positive noises emanating from both the Bluetooth SIG and Wibree communities provide support for a favorable market forecast."
Source: ABI Research.