Shipments of equipment with bluetooth wireless
technology have rocketed tenfold in three years, a report from
industry analysts has revealed.
The level of bluetooth-enabled shipments increased to more than
250 million units last year, the report by IMS Research said.
Numbers are set to keep soaring, with shipments predicted to double
this year, and to top 1bn in 2008.
The bluetooth equipment shipments are dominated by cellular
handsets and audio headsets. IMS Research analyst Fiona Thomson
said, “Even by the end of the decade, handsets and headphones will
account for three quarters of shipments of Bluetooth-enabled
equipment.”
But Thomson added that the pattern of bluetooth-enabled
equipment would diversify. “In five years’ time around 100 million
each of notebooks, portable digital media players and games
appliances are predicted to have Bluetooth connectivity,” she
said.
The main threat to the growth of bluetooth in the medium term
was the impact of the alternative wireless technology, WUSB, in the
PC, office equipment and digital camera markets, but the extent of
this was not yet clear, the IMS report said.
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