According to a new report from Juniper Research, worldwide voice over IP (VoIP) over Wi-Fi equipment revenues are expected to reach over US$82bn by 2012, with North America leading the pack at US$35bn, followed by EMEA with US$23bn and Asia Pacific with US$21bn.

Other takeaways from ‘Wireless VoIP Handsets & Equipment: Current Markets (2005-6) & Forecasts (2007-12)’ include:

·         dual mode mobile handsets (cellular/VoIP over Wi-Fi) dominating this market, generating almost US$68bn in revenues by 2012 out of the total market of US$82bn;
·         single mode VoIP over Wi-Fi handsets continuing to see a conservative uptake primarily due to high pricing - resulting in revenues of only US$1.5bn by 2012;
·         enterprise access points (supporting VoIP) generating over US$5bn by 2012;
·         and sales of enterprise WLAN switch/mobility controllers (supporting VoIP) reaching almost US$8bn by 2012.

“The dual mode handset market will pick up much faster in the coming years than the single mode Wi-Fi handset sector,” opines report author Basharat Hamid Ashai. “The handset market is moving to a stage where no one wants to carry two or three devices in their pocket, so the ability to have a single device for all calls is a compelling proposition. Most single mode VoIP over Wi-Fi handset manufactures are actively either designing or planning to ship dual mode phones.”

Juniper believes that one other key trend will be the use of wireless mesh networks for VoIP. Currently these networks are in their infancy and are being used primarily for data applications.

Juniper’s positive reading of the Wi-Fi market runes is echoed by ABI Research. During 2006, the Wi-Fi semiconductor market shipped just under 200mn Wi-Fi chipsets, and reached over 500mn chipset shipments cumulatively, according to the latest release of ABI Research's quarterly ‘Wi-Fi IC Market Share Analysis and Forecasts’ database.

The ABI research suggests that around the middle of 2008, the industry will have passed the 1bn mark for cumulative chipset shipments. “Cumulative shipments of one billion Wi-Fi ICs mark a significant milestone,” says ABI Research principal analyst Philip Solis, “but even more impressive, there will be well over a billion chipsets shipped in 2012 alone, with cellular handsets and consumer electronics accounting for over two-thirds of that total.”

“From our point of view, cellular handsets and consumer electronics were always the most important end products for Wi-Fi chipset vendors to focus on,” Solis adds. “With more than two-thirds of Wi-Fi chipsets going into these two product categories in 2012, it is critical for chipset vendors to secure the appropriate customer wins in order to sustain or grow their market share.”

We say: Wi-Fabulous.
John Williamson