Home > Market Research > Handsets & Devices > Future Handset Connectivity Technologies

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Management Report
Published: June 2008
Pages: 100
Tables: For full details, please email keithw@cmsinfo.com
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Research from: Berg Insight
Sector: Handsets & Devices

Will WLAN, NFC and UWB join Bluetooth in future handsets? Berg Insight forecasts that 25 percent of mobile handsets sold in 2012 will feature wireless local area network connectivity. NFC and UWB are also predicted to gradually enter the high-end market segment. Find out more about these future handset connectivity technologies in this 100+ page strategic research report from Berg Insight.

Executive summary

Numerous connectivity technologies are being integrated into mobile phones. These technologies are largely complementary, with different use cases. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) drives the development of the Bluetooth standard. Bluetooth is a Personal Area Networking (PAN) technology optimised for low power consumption. From the onset, Bluetooth was designed to enable easy, ad-hoc pairing and medium data rate communication for numerous electronic devices. Today, the technology is available in countless devices, for instance handsets, headsets, consumer electronics and computers, medical equipment and cars. Since the introduction of the first Bluetooth-enabled handsets in 2000, the technology has seen phenomenal growth. The number of handsets featuring Bluetooth has surpassed 550 models and unit shipments exceeded 560 million in 2007.

The IEEE 802.11 standards for wireless local area networks (WLAN) have been developed to standardise wireless LANs for computer networking applications. The first mobile phones featuring WLAN connectivity became available in 2004, primarily intended for Internet access, corporate VoIP services and later, UMA fixed mobile convergence services. Moreover, the Bluetooth SIG is developing a new radio substitution architecture that will enable the use of the established Bluetooth protocols, profiles, security and pairing mechanisms to be used by a secondary radio already present in a handset to achieve faster throughput. In February 2008, the Bluetooth SIG added the IEEE 802.11 standard as an interim solution for the Bluetooth “Alternate MAC/PHY” architecture before the WiMedia Alliance ultra wideband radio becomes more widely available. The number of WLAN-enabled handset models has experienced rapid growth during 2007 and the first half of 2008. About 40 models had been announced at the end of 2006. In June 2008, more than 110 models were available, or about to become available on the market. Meanwhile, shipments have grown from slightly more than 5 million to 27 million in 2007.

Ultra wideband (UWB) is not a standard in itself, but refers to a radio technology using low energy, high bandwidth communication. The WiMedia UWB Common Radio Platform specification is being adopted by numerous standard organisations for enabling short-range connectivity with data rates up to 480 Mbps. The radio platform has for instance been adopted by the USB-IF for the Certified Wireless USB standard and by the Bluetooth SIG as an alternative high-speed radio for the future Bluetooth specification. The first handsets with UWB radios are likely to become commercially available in the late 2009 to 2010 timeframe.

Near Field Communication (NFC) is a standard for short-range wireless, point-to-point communication between devices over distances of about 10 centimetres. When deployed in mobile phones, NFC can be used for countless applications, ranging from information exchange, electronic ticketing, electronic payment, to device pairing for establishing data transfers using complementary technologies such as Bluetooth or WLAN. In Japan, contactless payment and authentication services using mobile phones was introduced in 2004 and has since been widely deployed there. Mobile payment and ticketing services are likely to be the main drivers for NFC integration in handsets. Outside Japan, payment services using NFC largely remains in the trial state and only a few handsets are commercially available. However, the technology and business models are falling into place, thus enabling service rollouts in the near future.

In order to reduce solution cost and footprint, chipset vendors are developing multi-radio chipsets that combine multiple connectivity technologies into system-in-package or single-die system-on-chip solutions. Revenues for Bluetooth, WLAN NFC and UWB connectivity chipset solutions for mobile phones reached around US$ 1,220 million in 2007. Berg Insight forecasts that these revenues will grow with a compound annual growth rate of 11 percent to US$ 2,090 million in 2012. Moreover, total connectivity revenues, including AM/FM radio and GPS, are forecasted to grow from US$ 1,660 million in 2007, to US$ 3,050 million in 2012.

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents i
List of Figures. v
Executive summary .1
1 Handset connectivity technologies..3
1.1 Wireless communication technologies4
1.1.1 Personal area and local area network technologies. 5
1.1.2 Cellular mobile communication technologies...6
1.1.3 Spectrum and interference  6
1.1.4 Technical comparison...7
1.2 Broadcast connectivity technologies ..8
1.2.1 Radio .8
1.2.2 Mobile TV...8
1.2.3 GPS ...9
1.3 Handset platforms and connectivity integration  10
1.3.1 Handset hardware and software platforms. 10
1.3.2 Horizontal and vertical integration of connectivity technologies 12
1.4 Single chip versus discrete chip integration .13
1.5 Handset value-chain overview...15
1.5.1 Cellular chipset vendors..15
1.5.2 Connectivity chipset vendors ..16
1.5.3 Handset OS and software vendors .16
1.5.4 Handset manufacturers...17
1.6 Drivers and barriers to integration .17
1.6.1 Bluetooth .17
1.6.2 WLAN...18
1.6.3 UWB 18
1.6.4 NFC .19
2 Bluetooth in mobile phones...21
2.1 Overview of the Bluetooth technology ..21
2.1.1 Bluetooth specifications ..22
2.1.2 Bluetooth applications and profiles .23
2.2 Bluetooth and other connectivity technologies .25
2.2.1 Bluetooth and FM radio...26
2.2.2 Bluetooth and WLAN...26
2.2.3 Bluetooth and GPS..26
2.2.4 Bluetooth and cellular baseband integration ..26
2.3 Company profiles ..27
2.3.1 Broadcom  27
2.3.2 CSR .29
2.3.3 Infineon Technologies .31
2.3.4 Qualcomm...32
3 Wireless LAN in mobile phones. 35
3.1 Overview of Wireless LAN..35
3.1.1 WLAN standards .36
3.1.2 WLAN in mobile phones..38
3.2 WLAN and Bluetooth coexistence .39
3.3 Company profiles ..41
3.3.1 Atheros Communications  41
3.3.2 Marvell .43
3.3.3 Nanoradio  44
3.3.4 Redpine Signals ..44
3.3.5 STMicroelectronics and NXP wireless joint venture  44
3.3.6 Texas Instruments ...47
4 NFC and UWB technologies..51
4.1 Overview of NFC and UWB technologies..51
4.2 Near Field Communication technology and standards 52
4.2.1 NFC modes .54
4.2.2 NFC solution architecture and chipsets..54
4.3 Ultra wideband technology and standards ...55
4.3.1 WiMedia Alliance .56
4.3.2 Certified Wireless USB 57
4.4 Company profiles ..58
4.4.1 Alereon 58
4.4.2 Artimi ...59
4.4.3 Gemalto...59
4.4.4 Innovision 60
4.4.5 Inside Contactless...60
4.4.6 NXP Semiconductors ..61
4.4.7 Realtek .62
4.4.8 Sony 62
4.4.9 Staccato Communications ..63
4.4.10 Wisair...63
4.4.11 WiQuest Communications ..64
5 Handset manufacturers .65
5.1 Nokia..66
5.2 Samsung Electronics .68
5.3 Motorola.70
5.4 Sony Ericsson72
5.5 LG Electronics ...74
5.6 Research In Motion  75
5.7 HTC77
5.8 Second tier handset vendors 79
5.8.1 Acer/E-TEN..80
5.8.2 Apple ...80
5.8.3 ASUSTeK.81
5.8.4 BenQ ...81
5.8.5 Fujitsu ..82
5.8.6 Gigabyte ..82
5.8.7 Hewlett Packard ..83
5.8.8 i-mate...83
5.8.9 Mio Technology...84
5.8.10 NEC .84
5.8.11 Palm .85
5.8.12 Panasonic  85
5.8.13 Sagem .86
5.8.14 Sharp...86
5.8.15 Toshiba  86
6 Market trends and forecasts ..89
6.1 Market trends.89
6.2 Worldwide handset sales ..91
6.3 Handset shipments by connectivity standard ...92
6.4 IC vendor market shares ...94
6.5 Connectivity IC shipment forecasts...95
6.6 Connectivity IC revenue forecasts .97
Glossary .101
Index
List of Figures
Figure 1.1: Range versus throughput for wireless communication technologies..4
Figure 1.2: Performance comparison .7
Figure 1.3: Mobile phone hardware and software platform..10
Figure 1.4: GPS handset and service value chain  15
Figure 2.1: Examples of Bluetooth profiles...24
Figure 2.2: Overview of key Bluetooth chipset developers for handsets .27
Figure 2.3: Examples of Broadcom connectivity chipsets ...28
Figure 2.4: Examples of CSR connectivity chipsets .30
Figure 2.5: Examples of Infineon connectivity chipsets ...32
Figure 2.6: Examples of Qualcomm GSM/EGPRS/HSDPA wireless chipsets .33
Figure 3.1: IEEE 802.11 WLAN standards 36
Figure 3.2: Overview of mobile WLAN chipset developers ..41
Figure 3.3: Examples of Atheros Communications’ connectivity chipsets...42
Figure 3.4: Examples of STMicroelectronics’ connectivity chipsets 45
Figure 3.5: Examples of Texas Instruments connectivity chipsets...48
Figure 4.1: UWB spectrum and band groups...56
Figure 5.1: Tier 1 mobile phone and smartphone manufacturers (World 2007)..65
Figure 5.2: Nokia handset sales and market share .66
Figure 5.3: Nokia WLAN, GPS or NFC-enabled GSM/WCDMA handsets...67
Figure 5.4: Samsung handset sales and market share68
Figure 5.5: Samsung WLAN enabled handsets...69
Figure 5.6: Motorola handset sales and market share .70
Figure 5.7: Motorola handsets with WLAN or GPS..71
Figure 5.8: Sony Ericsson handset sales and market share 72
Figure 5.9: LG handset sales and market share...74
Figure 5.10: RIM handset sales and market share ...75
Figure 5.11: RIM BlackBerry smartphones..76
Figure 5.12: GPS and WLAN-enabled HTC handsets .78
Figure 6.1: Worldwide handset sales by technology (World 2006–2012)91
Figure 6.2: Number of handset models available by connectivity technology 93
Figure 6.3: Handset shipments by connectivity technology (World 2004–2007).93
Figure 6.4: Market shares, Bluetooth ICs for mobile phones (2007)94
Figure 6.5: Market shares, WLAN ICs for mobile phones (2007) .94
Figure 6.6: Handset sales by connectivity technology and attach rates (World 2007–12) ..95
Figure 6.7: Connectivity solution revenues by technology (World 2007–2012)...97

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