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NPD Expects 600 Million Wi-Fi Home Theater Devices by 2015
Fri Jan 20, 2012 at 01:45 PM ETTags: NPD, Wi-Fi, Industry Trends (all tags)
It's not hard to imagine, considering the surge in connected devices over the last few years.
Just a year or two ago, only the top of the line Blu-ray players and TVs had wireless capabilities built in. Not much before that, it was unheard of to have a service like Netflix embedded into a TV. Things have changed dramatically and the NPD Group says this growth is only going to continue.
Wireless networking functionality is becoming increasingly common, to the point that you can find it in low priced set-top boxes and entry level Blu-ray players. According to the NPD, we're going to end up with somewhere around 600 million Wi-Fi capable units shipped to retail by 2015.
"Wi-Fi has moved from a nice-to-have feature to a must-have feature as it provides the connectivity necessary to support IP-based video content," says NPD's Frank Dickson. "It is important to note that Wi-Fi is growing from being simply about getting content from a network to device."
In addition to streaming from internet based sources and home computers, Wi-Fi may be one of the technologies that helps enable streaming directly from your laptop's screen to your computer. It also helps to enable smartphone and tablet control options.
Source: Home Media Magazine
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