Wi-Fi takes off in 2012 Sales of wireless devices such as smartphones and tablets continue to outpace sales of wired devices like PCs. Gartner recently reported that while PC orders in Western Europe totaled 14.8 million units in the third quarter of 2011, they were down 11.4% compared to the same period last year. Investment bank JP Morgan estimates that tablet sales will grow to 99.3 million in 2012, driven by the Apple iPad, Amazon Kindle, and Android devices. This will match smartphone sales, resulting in more fixed-line and wireless providers, companies, and public sector organizations adopting Wi-Fi to meet the ever-increasing demand for wireless connectivity. In 2011, Chris Bruce, president of the Wireless Broadband Alliance, declared that the year marked "the beginning of the golden age of Wi-Fi.".
In 2012, capacity will matter as much as coverage
Wi-Fi capacity will become as important an issue as Wi-Fi coverage in 2012, and service providers will need to deploy Wi-Fi networks with bandwidth that can cope with densely populated environments, such as the crowds of spectators expected during the upcoming London Olympics.
This will become more apparent as more wireless carriers offload data traffic onto Wi-Fi networks and Wi-Fi hotspots become universally accessible thanks to the adoption of the 802.11u standard, which will allow users to easily connect between hotspots without constant authentication. It is estimated that service providers will spend up to one billion dollars globally expanding Wi-Fi networks to support the increased capacity demand.
Three Wi-Fi devices per person
As sales of smartphones and tablets with Wi-Fi capabilities continue to increase rapidly, we estimate that the number of Wi-Fi-enabled devices per person will reach 3 by 2012. Tablets have been adopted by both consumers and businesses and are optimized for entertainment and corporate use. In addition to smartphones, other Wi-Fi-enabled devices include laptops, game consoles, and printers. Many users are taking their devices to work, school, or university as a PC replacement for a wide variety of tasks.
